Hunter Down
by Scorpio71
Summary: When Remy LeBeau booked passage on the Hunter-Gratzner he was only hoping to track down rumors of his one-time friend and teammate: Logan. Then the transport crashed onto a hostile world and what he found there turned his whole life upside-down. SLASH
1. Chapter 1

**TITLE: **Hunter Down

**AUTHOR: **Scorpio

**FANDOM: **X-Men(616) / Chronicles of Riddick(Pitch Black)

**GENRE: **Crossover, slash, action/adventure, future fic

**RATING: **NC-17 / Mature / Adult Only

**WARNING: **Excessive violence, bad language, drug use, homosexuality

**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own Gambit, Riddick or any of the characters portrayed in the _X-Men_ comics or the _Chronicles of Riddick_ series of movies. I am not making any money off of this.

**SUMMARY: **When Remy LeBeau booked passage on the Hunter-Gratzner he was only hoping to track down rumors of his one-time friend and teammate: Logan. Then the transport crashed onto a hostile world and what he found there turned his whole life upside-down.

**

* * *

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Hunter Down

_X-Men/Pitch Black cross_

Gambit looked at the little bit of plastic and metal in his hand that was, apparently, the futures' version of an airplane boarding pass. From what little he knew of current space travel, this tiny electronic thing held all of his personal information as well as his medical information. It would be plugged into the cryogenic chamber he'd be placed into. That way the ship and crew could identify him and monitor his health while he was in suspended animation.

To be honest, if it wasn't for the rumors he'd heard about an immortal wild man with knives for hands living on another planet, he wouldn't go. Not that he feared space travel. Gambit had traveled the stars of deep space several times, but that had been centuries ago with Shi'ar tech or with Corsair and the Spacejammers. The ship he was waiting to board was pure human design and pure human tech. He didn't have nearly as much faith in it.

He was also very wary of being put into any type of cryogenic chamber. This, when one considered that he'd woken up in a cyro-tube only five years earlier deep inside one of Sinister's abandoned labs, only made sense.

To this day, Gambit didn't know how long he had lain asleep in that tube. He only awoke because the power to the lab had finally failed and the auto-sequence to initiate wake-up in the various tubes kicked in. He'd felt like he'd only been asleep for a short while before waking up in a lab with Scalphunter, Blockbuster, Harpooner, Arclight, and Vertigo. The Marauders were together again.

The thing was, every single one of them had died, including Gambit. His own personal last memory before waking up was being captured by Sinister at the ripe old age of 72. He could clearly remember having long silvery hair with a receding hairline, lots of wrinkles and age spots, and a tremor that made his right hand shake due to nerve damage suffered over the years. When he awoke, he couldn't have been more than 25 years old, if that.

The shock of being cloned into a younger body soon gave way to an even greater surprise. Culture Shock, to be more accurate. They were in the future. Centuries in the future and on an alien world colonized by humans decades ago.

Sinister hadn't been anywhere to be found. In fact, they didn't even know if he was still alive. They had banded together in order to survive while they desperately tried to learn the language and catch up on the technology. Still, Marauders are Marauders, no matter what century you drop them into. Blockbuster and Harpooner were in some sort of prison on some other planet now. Scalphunter and Arclight ended up joining a merc group for the fun of hunting down people and capturing or killing them. Vertigo found herself a fairly wealthy man and was currently filling his home with babies.

And Gambit, well, he had gotten back into thieving. It had taken a while to learn enough about current security systems and the modern version of computers, but he was a thief at heart. He began to wonder about what happened to those he had known in his first life and started to track down what information he could on how they died. A morbid hobby, true, but one that led directly to him being here in this small space port and about to board the futures' version of cheap mass transit to another planet.

There were rumors, nothing confirmed, of an immortal man with knives for hands. An old man, weathered and wearied in ways that most couldn't understand. A wild man that often set out to spend years in the untamed lands of non-colonized worlds alone until civilization caught up with him once again before he'd move on.

Gambit believed it was Logan. Wolverine. And he was going to hunt down and find his long lost teammate.

Gambit was pulled out of his introspection when a blond merc walked past him directing a bunch of security people who were pushing another man on some sort of trolley. The man had more chains and shackles than Gambit had seen since the last time the X-Men tried to tame Victor Creed. The large heavily muscled man seemed calm, serene, almost amused by the fuss. He was either a fool, or deadly dangerous.

The man's head snapped around whip quick when they passed Gambit and their eyes met. Fiery red on black met a strange darkness coated in a glistening silvery sheen.

Dangerous.

Gambit's first thought was that he was a mutant. Yet, from what he had learned from the histories he'd read, the time of mutants was over. When humanity spread across the stars, mutants tended to flock together and they had gone on to form societies that slowly evolved into various 'sub-species' of human. Normal humans had also done so, if more slowly and with less variation, but that was due more too environmental factors than anything else. A planet with less oxygen, or more gravity, or less water, or higher amounts of one heavy metal element or some such would effect changes on the human settlers over the generations.

It seemed that the deadly realities of space had finally taught the human race at least a little bit of tolerance for those that were different. Even as they banded together under a single empire, with a single economy and language.

Strange thing, the future.

Once the dangerous man with the wild eyes was chained down inside the ship and made 'safe', the rest of the passengers were called for boarding. He smiled at a woman in leather and got snarled at by her grumpy husband. He cast sad eyes at a young child trying desperately to pretend he was with other people and was supposed to be there and not really on his own. He mentally rolled his eyes when he was trapped in a corner and babbled at nervously by a thin man who was trying to cover his fear of space travel by boasting of the hoard of things he was transporting. Perhaps Gambit would pay back this kindness by relieving him of a few things when they finally got to where they were going, heh?

Then it was time and one of the crew was gently herding him towards his cryo-chamber. He hesitated slightly at the entrance to it and suppressed a deep felt shiver. Intellectually he knew that he was merely a clone of the original Gambit and that this should be like stepping back into the womb, but he had all of Gambit's memories and a perfect copy of his body. He could remember a long life spent bouncing between the Thieves Guild, the Marauders, and the X-Men. None of those things suggested a personality that would calmly step into such a place. Yet, with a shudder and a sigh, he did so.

"Oh Logan, y' better be there an' willing t' see him or Remy's gonna kick y' ass fo' putting him through dis." He muttered just before the cryogenic sequence started and his mind shifted into sleep.

* * *

Gambit was jolted awake when a large bang rattled his cryo-chamber and the power running it was suddenly diverted to another part of the ship. He felt groggy and disoriented even as something deep inside screamed of danger.

His sense of the kinetic was screaming at him. He somehow managed to blow the lock on the door and leap out of his cryo-chamber in time to see several bullet sized space rocks come blazing through the hull of the ship. Just as quickly they slammed into and then through the chamber he'd just been in. He only had a brief moment to gape and then his sense of the kinetic screamed in his head again. He dove to the right and rolled across the floor as another handful of rocks blasted through the hull.

He looked up from his crouch on the floor to find his eyes captured by a gleaming silver gaze. The chained and shackled man studied him briefly and then smirked.

"Good reflexes."

He smirked back for a moment before his eyes widened once more at the mental clamor in his head and then he was jumping up and flipping over a dangling wire and a hiss of venting steam as more space rocks blasted through the hull. Two more cryo-chambers were destroyed, their passengers dead.

He both loved and hated the ability to sense kinetic energy in objects both moving and still. It gave him a complete picture of the world around him, but when he focused on it in situations like this; he always had to bite back the urge to charge everything up into tiny individual bombs. A ship flying through an asteroid field was dangerous enough without him exploding the ship around him.

"When Remy finds de fool dat flew us into de asteroid field, he gonna shove his boot up de man's ass."

The prisoner barked out a short laugh with his gravely voice. "You do that."

Their conversation was cut short by a loud bang followed by a deep tremor and jolt that shook the whole ship.

"What de hell?" Gambit's red eyes opened wide with confusion as he scanned the ship with his kinetic sense, before closing them in a wave of deep sadness. "Someone just disconnected de last section of de ship. It be in freefall towards whatever planet be below us."

The man grunted. "The pilot can't get control of the ship. We're gonna crash. We'll all die if she doesn't get the nose down."

Gambit nodded even as he looked around and finally heard the blaring alarms and the calmly smooth voice of the computer giving out various warnings. A man came through the compartment, one of the crew judging from his uniform. He stepped partway through a hatchway and began arguing with another crew member; the pilot probably.

He couldn't follow their words, however, as just then his kinetic sense went wild and he was leaping and dodging under another volley of tiny asteroids that zipped through the hull like armor piercing bullets.

It was followed swiftly by another shudder, bang and jolt as another section of the ship dropped into freefall away from them. The crew member screamed at the pilot and jammed her door open so she couldn't eject any more sections.

Then his kinetic sense screamed so loud that he swayed on his feet and nearly passed out. Instead, he took a deep breath and yelled out, "Oh merde!" and leapt towards the man chained down in the back of the compartment. Gambit jumped on the man's lap and wrapped his long legs around him and the chair he was strapped to. He wrapped his arms around the man's chest and tucked his head down into the man's shoulder.

"Brace y'self, we gonna crash!"

The man's eyes widened in shock at Remy's move, but he just braced his feet along the floor and wrapped his hands around the chains locking his arms in place. He tucked his own head down into Remy's shoulder to protect his face and eyes from flying debris.

Then the whole ship jolted hard against the planet's surface. The crew member that had fought with the pilot to save the remaining passengers' lives went flying past them from the force of the hit. He slammed into a bulkhead and crumpled to the floor, dead. If Gambit hadn't been holding so tightly to the prisoner and his bolted down chair, he would have been tossed to his death as well.

The ship bounced back into the air and swirled around dizzily. Gambit's ability to sense kinetic energy let him know exactly what was happening around him and it was all he could do not to vomit down the prisoner's back. The ship hit the ground again and a huge hunk of the hull was shredded away, taking two cryo-chambers with it. Then it bounced up and tumbled through the air once more. When it landed again, it skidded along the ground leaving a huge groove carved out of the surface before shuddering to a halt.

Moving slowly in respect for his sore and strained muscles, Gambit lifted his head and leaned back from the prisoner whose lap he was straddling. A wave of relief that he had survived the crash tumbled through his brain and he smiled the most joyful and charming smile he could.

"Hi!"

The prisoner smirked and lifted up one eyebrow.

"I's Gambit," he winked and then purred out "but y' can call him Remy."

The man stared at him a moment before tilting his head back and barking out another laugh.

"Richard B. Riddick." He rolled his eyes. "Most folks just refer to me as The Riddick."

The man gave a tug on one arm and the damaged restraint broke free. His smirk grew.

"Well, Remy. Time to go. Got a blond haired merc to avoid."

Gambit slid off of his lap and watched the man as he worked at the second arm shackle. He was big and strong and undoubtedly dangerous. He had a wild, almost feral feel to him that was very reminiscent of both Wolverine and Sabertooth. There was no doubt that he was just as deadly as those two mutants that Gambit had once called friend, teammate, and occasionally, enemy. Plus, he was sexy as all hell.

With a put upon sigh and a roll of his red on black eyes, Gambit reached into his trench coat pocket and pulled out a slim case full of ancient and modern lock picks. He knelt down by the man's feet where his ankles were shackled.

"Remy should know better than t' listen t' his dick. It gonna get him kilt one o' these days."

He popped open one of the locks just in time for the man to bark out another laugh. Gambit started to work on the other shackle.

"Yeah, laugh it up. I can jus' hear mon Stormy lecture in m' head." His voice went falsetto and took on an accent, "Remy, you know I love you like a brother, but I simply don't understand your fascination with psychopaths and murderers. You need to settle down with a nice girl and get a job that doesn't involve theft so you can raise a family."

The man chuckled and stood up as the last shackle fell away. He reached for a pair of dark goggles and slid them on over his head.

"It's good advice. You should listen to her."

Gambit nodded. "It be great advice for a reg'lar person. Remy could never get Stormy t' un'erstand that he be a psychopath an' a murderer too, so she be de one wit' de fascination."

The man lifted one sculpted eyebrow as Remy tucked away his picks again. Gambit answered the unspoken question in the only way he could.

"Once a Marauder, always a Marauder." He grinned sadly. "No matter how much y' love de person tyin' t' rehabilitate y'."

Whatever Riddick would have said to that was lost forever as Gambit's head snapped around to see another cryo-chamber starting to open. He turned back to see Riddick grabbing something and stashing it on his person quickly. Gambit made a shooing motion, "Time t' leave, cher. Remy see y' later."

Riddick stilled for a moment and looked at him. "Yeah. You will." And then he was gone, disappearing through the gaping hole ripped in the side of the ship's hull.

* * *

Three suns.

Gambit was stranded on a barren desert planet with three suns. And some type of…alien things living in caverns merely two meters under the ground. Fate must be laughing her ass off.

Well, as long as the things stayed in their caves and left Gambit alone he was more than willing to return the favor. At the moment, it was the three suns and lack of water that was worrying him.

Most of his and the other's possessions were spread across the surface of the planet from when the pilot, Fry, had dumped the first compartment of the ship. It had been the cargo hold for the most part. The only thing he had on his person was his armor, his bo and his lock picks. It wasn't even his Guild colors and X-Men armor. His original body had most likely been buried in that. No, he was wearing old fashion Marauder armor that he and the others had found in a locker room in Sinister's old lab when they awoke. He'd originally chosen to wear it just incase he really did find Wolverine. The man had always had memory problems and it had been several centuries since Gambit's death. He had figured that armor would come in handy if the old man popped his claws.

He supposed that it would also be helpful if those things did come up out of the ground in a wave of violence and death, but for now it was a mild form of torture to wear heavy black armor in leather, kevlar and that synthetic spandex stuff developed by Reed Richards to absorb bio-energy attacks. His long brown leather trench coat didn't help.

The heat was incredible; even for a southern boy like him.

He wasn't the only one feeling it too. Everyone was overheated, thirsty, and scared. No one was quite sure what to do or how to get off this rock. That Riddick was loose and running around only made them jumpier.

Fry was a basket-case. From what Gambit could tell, she was a spoilt and naive little girl that thought she was tough. Now she knew better and was feeling a whole lot of guilt over sending two compartments full of passengers to their deaths. The merc, Johns, was playing her like a fiddle; tug the guilt, feed the ego and she was singing his tune.

The merc just got on Gambit's nerves. He was arrogant and pushy and while he might have some small skill, he didn't have what it took to back up his attitude. Gambit had known, fought, and loved better hunters and killers than this guy could ever hope to be; on both sides of the mutant wars.

The holy man and his young apprentices were okay as long as they didn't try to convert him. His papa had been catholic and Storm had her goddess, but Gambit had given up on the notion of God around the time that he'd gone undercover for the X-Men and joined Apocalypse. Even now, centuries later and in a brand new clone body he could still feel the pull of the Horseman of Death under his skin. No, Gambit had no use for anyone's God after that.

The boy, Jack, was a sad reminder of his own earliest days. Street rat thief, gutter child. Gambit did what he could to keep the boy out of Fry's and the merc's way. He tried to steer the boy to the holy man, but the child seemed happier to orbit around Gambit like a small babbling moon. Gambit understood and didn't really mind; like calls to like after all. And in this type of situation, which was completely out of the child's experience, an adult presence was comforting. Even to an orphan.

The man, Paris, was something else though. He was soft of body and had already come across as a bit of a coward. He called himself a businessman, but Gambit saw him being more in line to a small time fence. He was smart in his own way, and probably not so bad in his own environment. Here on this hellish planet, he was so far out of his depths he didn't know what to do with himself. He tended to bounce between the merc and Gambit, trying to ingrate himself to them. He was shrewd enough to tell who could hurt him or save him.

The husband and wife in leather were simple people, but kind. Like Paris, they were out of their depth, but at least they were willing to try. The woman was gathering supplies and fussing over the kids. The man had grabbed a makeshift shovel and announced he was going to go bury the dead. Gambit had warned him not to dig too deep, that there was something living underground. That had gotten him some odd looks and a hasty promise to be careful. He'd offered to help and watch his back incase something went wrong, but he was turned down.

He knew that they all thought he was paranoid or confused due to the crash, but he hoped the man listened anyway and didn't dig too deep. They had enough trouble without stirring up more.

Events picked up their pace when the woman, Shazza, found a stash of small personal oxygen canisters and breathing masks. This planet did have an atmosphere that was livable, but the oxygen content was low and this made everyone feel sluggish and out of breath. These would help tremendously. Paris had already donated his stash of alcohol to drink, but that would only delay the inevitable. They needed to find water to survive.

And Gambit knew there was water here somewhere. There were a few clouds in the sky and all the things underground needed something to drink too. It was just a matter of finding it. That being the case, when Fry decided that the group should split up and search for some, he agreed to lead one such group.

He chose the holy man and his apprentices. The child too. Fry's grouped up with the merc and Shazza. Paris would stay at the wreck and wait for the various groups to come back. So, Gambit reluctantly peeled off his trench coat and emptied the pockets of everything he might need or didn't want to lose. He warned Paris to watch over it and protect it. That had earned him more odd looks, but how could he explain the memories tied to that coat? Instead he had loosened his armor a bit to let some of the heat out. It wouldn't do to overheat in this desert if he could help it.

Gathering his so-called team together, they headed out in the direction of the blue sun.


	2. Chapter 2

"What's your name?"

Gambit looked down at the young boy bouncing along beside him and grinned.

"Gambit." He peered over his sunglasses at the child. "What's yours petit?"

The child beamed a smile at him. "Jack."

A brief pause.

"What's petit mean?"

Gambit chuckled. "It means 'little one' in an old language called French."

"Oh."

The group continued walking along the burning sand dunes, the holy man and his boys quiet and listening. Gambit shifted his angle slightly, herding them towards whatever it was he could feel with his kinetic sense off in the distance. They were still too far for him to say what it was; only that something was out there.

"I like your eyes."

Gambit smirked and nodded his head. "Merci beaucoup." He continued even as Jack opened his mouth to speak, "It be French for 'thank y' very much' petit."

The boy smiled and nodded, bounced a few steps and then pointed at Gambit's wrist bracers and then his chest piece.

"Is that body armor? I've never seen armor like that before."

Gambit chuckled and shared an amused glance with the holy man.

"Oui, Gambit wearing body armor. Not surprised it be different t' what y' used t'. It be very old armor." He pointed to the red diamond on the collar that acted as a communicator when he was close enough to other's wearing the same. "Dis be de symbol o' de Marauders. Gambit be a Marauder fo' very long time."

This time it was the holy man that spoke.

"Marauder?" One eyebrow raised up high. "Is that a type of Law Enforcement Officer like Mr. Johns? Or a military one?"

Gambit snorted.

"Johns ain't no Law Officer. He's a merc." Gambit shook his head. "Not even a very good one at dat."

"Merc?" one of the man's boys asked.

Gambit nodded. "Mercenary. A hunter-killer fo' hire. He just happen t' be workin' fo' de government t' hunt criminals, dat's all."

"And you?" the other man was shrewd in a way the children couldn't be and that Paris never would be. Gambit was impressed.

"De Marauders were a team o' hunter-killers fo' hire. Dey disbanded now, so Gambit freelance."

The little boy looked at him with wide fascinated eyes. "You're a killer?"

Gambit grimaced and shrugged. "Can be when I gotta, mais Gambit not assassin." He grinned, "Gambit be information an' acquisition specialist."

The boy looked confused, but the holy man just grunted and shook his head.

"Is that a fancy way of saying you're a thief?"

Chuckling, Gambit turned to the man, crossed one arm over his chest and gave a low but dramatic bow. "Remy LeBeau, Master T'ief at y' service?"

The boy huffed and crossed his arms. "I thought you said your name was Gambit."

Nodding, Gambit reached out and ruffled the boy's hair. "Oui, petit. I's Gambit. Where Gambit's from, y' born t' a name an' den take another if y' develop…" Gambit paused to think about how to explain mutations, "unique skills."

"Like stealing?"

Gambit smiled sadly, his memories of home rising up in him mind. "Naw, Gambit be kinchin-cove."

At the odd looks he got at that term he explained, "It means thief raised." He gave the boy a searching look. "He be 'bout y' age when he first be taught how t' pickpocket."

The child nodded easily, but the holy man sucked in a breath. "You were taught how to steal from people at such an early age?" The question was half appalled and half outraged.

Gambit shrugged and the boy rolled his eyes at the man. "Gots t' eat somehow, heh?"

Gambit shifted his direction again and began to lead them up the side of a tall dune.

"Yes, but…" the holy man was trying to keep the disapproval out of his voice and mostly succeeded, "surely there were other ways to find money to eat?"

Gambit didn't answer, the boy did. The child shrugged and made a vague gesture that could mean everything or nothing. "Better than starving to death or selling your ass to the perverts."

That statement shut the man up and broke what was left of Gambit's heart just a little bit. He took a moment or two to push down some of his own horrific childhood memories. Then and there he decided that if Jack didn't have anyone to go to, he'd take the boy with him to find Logan. It had been too long since his last apprentice, anyway.

They finally reached the top of the dune and all of them stood there for a long moment staring down with a mixture of disbelief and hope.

"Is that a settlement? Or are my eyes deceiving me?"

Grinning, Gambit slapped a friendly hand down on the holy man's shoulder. "Y' seeing right, mon ami. Dat be a human settlement."

With a whoop of joy, the boys started forward at a trotting run. Gambit laughed and started to follow with the holy man just a step behind him.

"Mon ami? What does that mean?"

Gambit smiled. "It be French fo' my friend."

The man gave him another of those shrewd looks. "And are we? Friends, that is?"

Gambit nodded. "I's like t' think so." He shrugged. "Ever'one dat survived de crash has de potential t' be a friend."

He made a face. "Except fo' dat merc, Johns. He a born dipshit if Gambit ever saw one."

The man huffed out a small laugh and nodded.

"Even the murderer, Riddick?"

Gambit pictured the big muscular man with the wild eyes and the feeling of a powerful feral thrumming around him. He felt his pants tighten and licked his lips.

"Gambit like dat one most of all."

They made the journey down the dune in quiet contemplation, following the footprints of the children toward the settlement.

"He could easily kill you, you know."

Gambit shrugged. "And Gambit could easily return de favor."

He thought back through his various relationships; Belladonna, Scalphunter, Rogue, finally in his declining years, Rictor. Then there were all of the different lovers he'd had in between; Sabertooth, Polaris, Mystique, The Courier, The White Queen, and for a brief while, Jubilee. More women then men to be sure, but all of them deadly and beautiful in their own way.

"Don't think Gambit'd be interested if de man was safe t' be around."

The holy man shot him a look that was a bizarre mixture of confusion, amusement, and pity. The conversation was over though as they had arrived at the settlement and there was much to explore.

They spent about an hour digging through everything. The place was abandoned, that much was obvious right from the start. The why, on the other hand, was somewhat mysterious. Gambit just hoped that it wasn't because of the things under the surface of the planet.

Still, they found several buildings, a small emergency space craft, a solar powered land rover, and a well with a working pump. Okay, it hadn't really worked until Gambit channeled a small spark of kinetic energy into the motor. It took a lot of effort to force the charge to power the machine instead of blowing it sky high. In the end it was worth the effort since he was able to fill four fairly large jugs with fresh clean water from deep inside the planet. Everyone took long deep drinks and then he refilled the jugs again and packed them inside the land rover.

"We'll bring de water t' de others. They probably damn thirsty by now, too." He fiddled with the dashboard until he figured out how to start the machine up. "De others will pro'bly want t' come here an' see dis all fo' themselves, anyway."

With the holy man in the seat next to him and the kids and jugs of water piled up in the back, Gambit turned the land rover towards the crash site.

* * *

With his trench coat firmly back in place on his body where it belonged, Gambit stepped into the shadows of the busted hull with an oxygen container in one hand and a jug of water in the other. He looked over at Riddick back in his shackles and tsked loudly.

"If y' missed Gambit dat bad, y' shoulda just come t' him. No need t' let dat fool chain y' down again." He leered at the big arm muscles pulled tautly away from the man's body. "Even if y' look damn fine all trussed up like dat."

The man grunted and smirked.

"That so?"

Gambit hummed an agreement and licked his lips. "Make dis po' boy think naughty thoughts."

Turning abruptly, he set the canister of oxygen down and muttered to himself, "Later Gambit. Business first, pleasure second." Then he stood back up and unscrewed the lid off of the jug and walked over to Riddick.

"Drink."

He lifted the jug to the man's face and watched patiently as he leaned forward and sniffed the liquid inside.

"It's clean, mon ami. Gambit checked."

Another deep sniff just to prove he wasn't willing to trust Gambit's word and then Riddick let Gambit pour a steady stream of water into his mouth. When it was empty, Gambit pulled the jug away and set it down.

"Found an abandoned settlement a bit aways." He gestured vaguely towards the southeast. "Empty buildings, land rover, water well."

He picked up the oxygen canister. "Emergency space ship."

Silver eyes darted to his. He nodded.

"Yeah. Everyone's excited 'bout dat, mais I worry where de people went. Think de things under de ground got 'em."

An eyebrow raised up. "You can hear them too?"

"Non," Gambit shook his head. "Can feel their movement under de ground."

Riddick grunted in acknowledgement. Both to Gambit's abilities and the fact that the things below were dangerous killers.

Smirking, Gambit hooked the strap of the oxygen over Riddick's head and then carefully fitted the mask to his face before releasing the valve in a hiss of pressurized air.

"Now, be a good boy an' breath dis in while Gambit work on those nasty shackles."

Twin silver eyes rolled at him, but Riddick was smart enough to accept the oxygen in this thin atmosphere. He watched with sharp attention as Gambit pulled out his picks once more and unclasped the case. A quick visual assessment of the locks and a swift brush of two gentle fingertips was all it took to allow Gambit to choose the correct tool for the job.

There wasn't any noise, just a shifting of Riddick's eyes, but that was enough. Palming his tools, Gambit turned and looked. His eyes easily picked out Jack in the shadows. He grinned.

"Boy! Come on over here. Something t' show y'."

There was a brief hesitation and then Jack slinked out of the shadows and over to the two dangerous men. Gambit shifted his case back into the light and let Jack see. He pulled them back out of reach when the boy stretched out a hand.

"Lesson de first. Pay attention an' learn what Gambit show y' an' dere be more t' come, heh?"

The boy looked up into his eyes and Gambit knew what it was the child was searching for. Eventually he found it because he beamed a smile and bounced on his toes once.

"Shit yeah! Cool." Head bobbed in a quick nod. "What's first?"

Gambit smirked. "Need de right tool fo' de job. If y' get good enough, y' can improvise on de sly, but t' start, learn de right way."

And from there the conversation evolved into a somewhat technical explanation of locks, picks, and the techniques of choosing which pick for what type of lock. Riddick listened and watched with amusement as Gambit easily opened the first shackle and then slowly walked the boy through opening the second.

Free once more, Riddick pulled off the oxygen and handed it over to the boy who calmly turned off the valve and hooked it over his head and shoulder to carry while Gambit cleaned his tool and tucked it away again.

Riddick looked him over for a long minute and then smirked.

"I don't scare you at all, do I?"

Gambit blinked and then grinned. "Y' remind me of a mix of one of my best friends an' an ex-lover. Despite de fact dat Wolverine an' Sabertooth hated each other, I think dat they'd both like y'." Gambit shrugged. "Fo' de same reason, too."

Jack tilted his head and asked, "Were they Marauder's too."

Gambit shook his head. "Sabertooth be a Marauder. Wolverine was part of de X-Men. De Marauder's were a hunter-killer team fo' hire. X-Men be freedom fighter group. Gambit bounced between de two fo' long time as member of both groups." He grinned, "Well, when he not doing jobs fo' de Thieves Guild dat is."

Riddick gave him another once over and reassessed him.

"And what did you do for these groups?"

It was Jack that answered, "He was an information and askewee…"

"acquisitions" Gambit injected.

"…and acquisitions expert."

Riddick smirked. "A thief, huh?"

Gambit nodded. "With a secondary specialty in battlefield combat." He sent a questioning look at Riddick. "An' you?"

Riddick snorted, "Didn't you hear? I'm a murderer."

Gambit rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Oh please. Spare me de dramatics. I'm a professional, not some timid civie hiding from de closet monster."

A brief pause, and then "Front line battlefield combat expert with a secondary specialty in piloting."

Gambit nodded and then looked over to Jack.

"Lesson de second kiddo; never take vague disclaimers of danger as de full story. Ever'ones got skills an' talents beneath de surface. And ever'one's got a story t' tell. It'd be up t' y' t' shift through de bullshit t' find de truth."

Wary confusion swimming in his eyes, Riddick stared at Gambit. "What do you want from me?"

Gambit didn't hesitate. "A blissfully cool shower, a filling hot meal, an' den a long hard night in de sack." He smirked, "In dat exact order, too."

A brief pause and then Riddick tipped back his head and barked out a laugh.

"You're insane."

Gambit tipped his head slightly to the side. "An' y' ain't de first t' say dat, either."

Jack just rolled his eyes and stepped out of the remains of the ship and into the sunlight, "I think you're both nuts."

Riddick snorted, "Outta the mouths of babes."

Chuckling, the two followed the boy only to be met with a snarling Johns.

"Who the hell let you loose?"

Gambit stepped smoothly in front of him and tipped down his sunglasses to stare at the man with his burning red eyes. Johns hissed and backed up a step.

"Dat would be moi."

Johns hesitated and then pulled himself together enough to rally. "On whose authority?"

Riddick snorted and shook his head. "Are you really that dumb, Johns? There is no authority here since the ship Captain is dead."

Carolyn Fry stepped over and pointed to Johns. "He's a cop."

Gambit didn't even look at her. "He ain't no cop, lady. He's a two-bit merc who better pull his fool head outta his own ass before it gets him kill't."

Eyes shifted to Johns in both curiosity and disappointed anger over the lie.

"Dis a barren desert planet wit' limited water an' a bunch a' alien things livin' under de surface hungering fo' our blood. We all need t' pull t'gether an' dis fool be stirring up ever'one's fears an' lockin' down our strongest back jus' so he can feel like de big man. It ends now."

Johns pulled his gun and Gambit blurred into motion. In the space of two heartbeats the gun was ripped out of Johns' hands and flying through the air towards Riddick and Johns was lying on the ground nursing a bloody nose and two cracked ribs.

"Pull a weapon on me or anyone else again an' Gambit'll feed y' corpse t' de monsters in de ground."

Gambit stepped away from the man and wrapped one arm around Jack's shoulders.

"Come on petit, lets get ever'thing packed into de land rover fo' de trip back t' de settlement."

The child twisted slightly to look over his shoulder.

"Riddick's gonna kill that man."

Gambit shrugged. "Dat's Riddick's business if he wants t' kill him. He's got more issues wit' de man then Gambit does."

* * *

It didn't take everyone long to pack up all of their remaining things, the extra oxygen canisters, and the first aid kit into the land rover. This time Shazza was driving with Paris, Fry and the kids inside. The rest of them jogged alongside the vehicle as Gambit lead the way to the settlement. Tensions were high around Riddick, but no one but Johns thought that he should be abandoned chained down in the wrecked ship. Of course, it was possible that Johns only really felt that way because he'd had his false authority publicly ripped from him before he was physically beat down. Humiliation did strange things to people.

It was also fairly obvious that even though Gambit's fearless flirtation both intrigued and confused Riddick, he enjoyed the fear he instilled in the others. Fry would be just as happy if he died but wasn't willing to get her hands any bloodier in order to do it. Perhaps the blood already staining them was too much, or perhaps it was easier to kill people that didn't realize they were dying and couldn't fight back.

Shazza and Zeke seemed to side with Fry on the Riddick issue, while Paris tried to avoid him if at all possible and showed evidence of barely contained terror when he couldn't. The holy man, who asked to be called Imam, seemed to regard Riddick and Gambit with a sort of wary respect. He seemed to instinctively understand that if you didn't poke the big mean dog with the sharp stick, that it would be less inclined to bite you in the ass.

The oldest two boys with Imam simply followed his lead and offered exquisitely polite manners to anyone and everyone equally. The youngest was more like Jack in that his curiosity and open friendliness made him a likeable little fellow.

Still, despite the amusement factor of Riddick freaking everyone out and the distraction caused by the two young ones babbling question after question, the journey to the settlement was long and hot. Gambit felt like he was baking in his armor, even with his trench coat packed away in the land rover with the supplies.

By the time they got there everyone was a bit wilted from the heat, exhausted from a hard day, and extremely thirsty. Gambit got to work filling the jugs back up with water and everyone indulged in long drinks. He feared that food was going to be a problem until the oldest boy found a few bags of freeze-dried stew in one of the buildings. It wasn't a lot, but it would help. Gambit pulled up some more water out of the pump for it, and Shazza and Zeke set about cooking it up.

While this was going on, Fry and Johns were investigating the emergency ship to see if it was flight worthy. It was only a short distance planet hopper, but the theory was that if they could make it to the main shipping lanes, they could send out a distress signal for pickup. There were no cryo-chambers to put anyone into suspended animation, so food and water would be an issue, but that was the case here too.

About an hour after everyone had eaten and plans were being made about what to do with the ship, Imam noticed that his youngest boy was missing. Almost no one worried too much about it and only gave a half hearted search despite both Imam's upset and Gambit's worry and feeling of dread. At least, not until the boy's death scream echoed across the desert from one of the locked buildings.

By the time they got there it was too late, the boy was dead with the meat nearly stripped from his bones. There was a cloud of small creatures that Gambit swore looked like dragon hatchlings. An impromptu investigation showed that the creatures were photosensitive, lived underground as Gambit and Riddick had been saying, and that the mining colony had been abandoned during the last eclipse. That there was another eclipse scheduled to begin in a few hours time was also discovered to everyone's horror.

Panic quickly ensued.


	3. Chapter 3

"The ship won't fly, dammit!" Fry snarled at Johns, her hands clenched into fists. "It needs six fully charged power cells to run and only one of the cells still has juice left."

Imam's two remaining boys huddled around him even as Jack firmly planted himself between Gambit and Riddick. Shazza shivered near Zeke and the man stepped closer to her.

"So, what does that mean?" Paris' voice was shrill. "We're stuck here and we're going to die?"

Johns raised a hand and glared at the man. "Now, just calm down. Both of you." His glare shifted to Fry as well.

"Calm down?" Paris shrieked.

Johns shifted his glare back to Paris, but Gambit just calmly reached out and slapped the panicked man in the back of the head. He stumbled forward a step from the blow and scowled.

"Hush up, now. Let de man speak."

Everyone turned surprised looks at him. Gambit spread his arms in a confused gesture.

"What? Just because Gambit thinks Johns be an asshole, don't mean de man don't have skills an' experience dat can be useful."

Johns flashed him a look that was half grudging gratitude and half rueful indignation.

"As I was gonna say, if we need five power cells for the skip, then we should just take five power cells from the remains of the transport." He waved his arm to point in the direction of the downed Hunter-Gratzner.

Everyone grew still as they considered that and then, nearly as one, they turned questioning expressions to Fry.

"Could that work?" Shazza's voice was tight with suppressed hope.

"I…" Fry's face was one of intense concentration, "I think that it could. I mean, I'd have to rig it together to make all the connections fit, but…" she grinned at the group. "It could work."

Smiles and grins began breaking out amongst everyone.

"We can go back to the ship with the sun cat and load them up and bring them back here easy enough." Shazza said.

Fry nodded. "Okay, everyone to the vehicle."

The group started to turn when Gambit threw out both hands, "NON!"

Incredulous and angry eyes turned to him.

"What do you mean, no?" Fry growled.

"Think 'bout it woman!" he growled back. Gambit gestured to the building with the model of the star system. "Are y' sure 'bout de calculations fo' de eclipse?"

That made everyone pause. Slowly she nodded.

"So, what y' sayin' is dat in just a few short hours, dis planet will be dark as pitch. A darkness dat will invite de monsters under de ground t' come on up looking fo' food."

Gambit watched with no pleasure as the realization of the real truth of the situation settled into her eyes and her face paled.

"Dere ain't no way dat Gambit want t' end up in de middle of de burning desert wit' a long line of straggling civilians an' children while trying t' battle off a planet full a hungry predators."

Fry looked ready to cry, but Johns pushed forward.

"We need those power cells to get off the damned planet."

Gambit nodded.

"True. An' Gambit is gonna take Riddick, Zeke, and Imam t' go get 'em."

Eyebrows raised and confusion bubbled up. Gambit ignored everyone else and poked Johns in the chest.

"You are gonna stay here an' guard de women an' children." He nodded back to the others. "As soon as de suns drop an' it gets dark, set 'em all up inside de ship. De creatures don't seem t' like light, so keep de power burning on de outside lights. Use y' shotgun an' Paris' alcohol if'n y' have t'."

Gambit waited while Johns sorted that all out in his head. He'd be left in the safer and more defensible spot, but if Gambit was putting the other's safety in his hands then anyone getting hurt or killed would be taken out of his hide. Finally, he nodded his head once in a short jerky motion.

Paris cleared his throat nervously and took a step forward.

"What…" he cringed when Gambit and Johns turned to look at him. "What about me? You didn't list me."

Johns smirked. "Sure he did. You're one of the children I've got to protect."

The man scowled fiercely, and walked off muttering curses even if he didn't do anything to disprove Johns' words.

"Good luck," Johns turned to give Gambit a serious look before shifting his gaze over to Riddick. "You're gonna need it."

Gambit snorted and sauntered over to the land rover with Riddick and Imam in tow. They climbed in and got settled while waiting for Zeke to be kissed and admonished to be careful by Shazza. Then Imam's oldest boy came running up, a bunch of flares in his hands and babbled at Imam in what sounded like a dialect of Arabic.

Imam turned to face Gambit. "Suleiman wants to come, to help. He says he has a strong back and can help carry the power cells."

Gambit eyed him up and down. The boy looked to be about 17 or 18 years old. He himself had faced danger at that age, but that was long ago and in another world. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Riddick giving a very slight nod of his head in approval.

"It's gonna be dangerous. If de suns go down before we make it back den we gonna be fighting fo' our lives wit' every step."

Imam talked to the boy, warning him in that other language and the boy responded.

"He knows of the danger and understands. He still wants to help."

Gambit nodded and gestured for the boy to get into the vehicle even as he hated himself just a little bit for it. Still, if the teen was man enough to face such danger willingly in order to help others, then he was man enough to die on his feet fighting all the way.

"You do realize," Riddick's voice was a dark seductive purr in his ear, "that not all of us are going to survive long enough to make it back to the ship."

Gambit nodded his head once in acknowledgement to that truth and followed it up with one of his own.

"S' better t' die wit' y' boots on an' go down fightin' than t' die on y' knees begging fo' mercy dat don't exist."

Imam and Zeke traded looks that spoke eloquently of their belief that they were traveling with a pair of lunatics. Dangerous ones at that.

"There is always room for mercy." Imam said.

Riddick snorted in amused disdain even as Gambit chuckled.

"Non, mon ami." Gambit clapped him on the shoulder in a friendly gesture. "Mercy be a rare an' precious treasure. Even more so when it be given honestly."

Gambit gave the man a pointed look. "Dat's why y' be a better man than Gambit, an' why Gambit be de better killer, heh?"

* * *

It took a long time for them to get to the remains of the crashed transport. Too long. Thank all the little gods that Riddick was enough of a pilot and ship's mechanic to know how to correctly and quickly disengage the power cells because Gambit, Zeke, Suleiman and Imam were clueless. Still, even with all five of them working as fast as they could, they didn't get the work done before the triple suns set and the eclipse began.

It was stunningly beautiful. Gambit had always enjoyed the play of color upon the sky when the sun set, but this, this was unreal and unearthly. Watching the pale waning light angle across the sky and land through the rings of dust, rock and ice that circled the planet rising above the horizon was hauntingly beautiful. Even more so when one considered the horror, death, and terror that it was heralding.

The spires of baked mud and dirt exploded just as the last of the light wavered across the horizon. Dark plumes of clicking, wailing hatchlings poured up out of the ground with reckless abandon, drunk on their first flight. Their first taste of freedom in the night air.

Riddick slid his goggles up to the top of his head even as Gambit shifted his sunglasses in an identical movement. Zeke and Imam hovered behind the two men, tension and fear bleeding off of them like open wounds.

"Can you see 'em?"

Gambit nodded once, sharply just as the larger spires began to explode, disgorging the adult alien raptors into the sky. They were huge beasts, the largest of which rivaled horses in size and weight with huge leathery wings, long razor sharp claws and skulls reminiscent of hammer-head sharks.

"Wh…what are they?" Zeke whispered hoarsely.

"Beautiful." Was Riddick's answer.

Gambit shifted his eyes to glance over at Riddick briefly and wasn't surprised to see the expression of joy and awe on his face. It was like watching a kid at Christmas finding out he had a bicycle waiting under the tree. Still, he felt Imam and Zeke needed the truth.

"Dey all wings and talons and claws. They be powered by a fierce hunger, predators born."

The cloud of raptors swooped in their direction. Gambit turned and began roughly herding the other two towards the ship. "Go! Quick! They heading dis way. Get under shelter. Now!"

Zeke and Imam turned and ran with Gambit quick behind them. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Riddick standing there still watching with an intent expression on his face.

"Riddick!" The man twitched. "Suicide later, mon ami. I still need y', so get y' ass over here."

He could hear the big man turn to follow, so Gambit poured on the speed and hurried to the ship. He jumped inside the remaining hull and spun around in time to see a large cloud of the hatchlings diving towards Riddick.

"Riddick! Down!" The big man looked at Gambit startled, and from the depths of his memory Gambit pulled up and then used the ancient battle sign for 'hit the deck'. Instantly, Riddick dropped face first into the sand and laid there as a swarm of the little beasts flew over his body. When the first break in the cloud passed him, he rolled over onto his back only to get a close up view of them coming back around for another pass. They swarmed over him, the nearest close enough to touch, before they took off into the night sky again. Smirking, Riddick stood up and calmly walked the rest of the way to the ship.

Gambit glared at him. "If y' end up dead before Gambit gets a chance t' sex y' up, he gonna kill y' his self."

Riddick chuckled and winked at him before walking away with a smug grin on his face. Zeke and Imam just shared another long look that spoke eloquently of bloodthirsty monsters on the outside and two crazy-ass killers on the inside. Truthfully, both were a little bit horrified to realize that Riddick and Gambit were actually a perfect match for each other. Although both also doubted it was one made in heaven. With a growl, Gambit slammed the hull door shut and ended their shared contemplation of psycho's in love.

Striding forward to the group, Gambit sighed and ran his hands up and into his hair.

"Okay, so de land rover is officially outta commission. De thing's solar powered so it won't get us back wit' de suns down."

His glowing eyes burned brightly in the darkness as they flitted here and there. He ignored the way Zeke flinched back from his gaze. He was long since used to people being creeped out by his eyes.

"We still need t' get de power cells t' de ship, so Gambit thinks de best way t' do dis is by either carrying them or dragging 'em behind us."

Zeke gaped at him for a moment in stunned amazement.

"We can't go out there! Those things'll kill us for sure."

Riddick grunted. "They'll kill us if we stay. It won't take long for them to find us." He tilted his head for a moment and his eyes tracked slowly to the left. "Some of them are already inside the hull further towards the cockpit."

Suleiman tugged on Imam's robe sleeve and babbled at him rapidly for a moment. Imam began nodding and then graced the boy with a broad smile of approval.

"That is an excellent idea." He turned to the group. "He said that we could use the emergency tube lighting. If we wrap it around ourselves and our cargo, it should warn the beasts away."

Riddick nodded too. "If we put the cells on makeshift skids, they should glide over the sand easier than if we were to drag them through the dunes without."

His silvery eyes seemed to glow when he glanced over at Zeke, Imam and the boy pointedly. Zeke visibly shuddered as they reflected even the tiniest bit of light. Apparently, Gambit wasn't the only one with creepy eyes.

"Determination and self-discipline won't change the fact that those fuckers are heavy and we gotta fucking long way to go."

Zeke made a face, but Imam saw the olive branch hiding within the insult and grabbed it. "Do not worry. The three of us are not warriors such as the two of you, but we are strong and brave. We will not fail you in this quest."

Riddick grunted but didn't argue the statement, so that was pretty much enthusiastic agreement for him.

Gambit began to absentmindedly tighten up the straps and buckles on his armor that he had gone and loosened up during the heat of the day. He had needed some sort of airflow between his clothes and his skin while laboring under the intense heat of three suns, but now he wanted the physical protection it would give him in battle. He wasn't under any delusions that it wouldn't come down to a fight. And right now the only trained fighters were he and Riddick. While he was sure Riddick would fight to save his own life, he wasn't too sure he could count on the big man to defend himself or the others. No matter how insanely sexy he was.

"Go'on an' pass out two o' dem flares t' ever'one, pup." He said to the boy before looking up and catching each person's eye in turn. "De creatures seem t' be afraid o' light, but I want y' all t' remember t' yell out de word 'flare' before y' set one off. Both Riddick and Gambit have photosensitive eyes an' we want de warning so dat we can look de other way. We y' fighters, so don't go an' blind us, heh?"

The teen's dark eyes were wide with suppressed terror and his dusky skin was a little ashy with mild shock. Yet he nodded when Imam translated his words and quickly passed around a bunch of small flares to everyone. Once everyone had flares tucked into various pockets, Zeke, Imam and the boy began to pull out the long flexible tubes that made up the emergency lighting as well as a small portable power generator.

They didn't get a chance to hook up the tubing to the generator before they were literally chased out of that section of the ship by one of those flying raptors. Gambit wasn't sure how it got into the ship, but they were fast, strong, and frighteningly intelligent.

And bloodthirsty. Mustn't forget that.

Zeke and the mini blowtorch he'd found had cut their way into a small cramped space and the rest of them followed him in. It was ultimately a short respite because that raptor thing found where they'd hid rather fast. Thankfully, it wasn't quite sure how to get its dinner out of the tin can so it mostly banged against the walls in frustration.

In a relative moment of silence, Gambit turned to give the holy man a serious look. "Imam…do y' remember when I told y' an' de boy Jack dat my name was Remy, but I's called Gambit?"

Imam blinked in mild confusion, but nodded his head. "Yes. You said that your people chose a second name when they develop special skills. The child asked if becoming a thief was your skill and you said no. But you didn't say what that skill was."

He'd caught everyone's attention by now. This was good, they needed to know.

"Gambit's skill be biokinetic manipulation."

"Huh?" Zeke's face was screwed up into a frowning look of concentration and confusion. "What the hell's that mean?"

Riddick arched one eyebrow in curiosity.

"Gambit can sense de kinetic energy in all objects. If an object be moving or…unstable, he sense it better, mais… An' if Gambit touch an object, he can…excite de kinetic energy, increase it 'til it become unstable enough t' explode."

"Oh my…" Imam's eyes went wide as he considered it.

Zeke and the boy mostly seemed confused. It was Riddick that summed it up best.

"So…what you're saying is that you're a walking bomb factory."

Gambit hesitated a second and then nodded his head in agreement. "Oui, Gambit only need t' touch somethin' an' throw it an' it explode."

Gambit took a deep breath and then looked at everyone in turn with a glare.

"Dat's not somethin' dat Gambit just go around doin' or talkin' 'bout. Its de kind of thing dat people end up kill't over or locked up in some crazy man's lab over. My people fought in wars for decades over stuff like dis." He jerked his head towards the banging on the walls. "Mais, ya gonna see him do it. So…brace y'self fo' some explosions, 'cause Gambit will be settin' 'em off."

Zeke opened his mouth to say something, but they'd never know what because at that point a large talon thrust its way through the steel walls and missed impaling the back of Imam's head by only an inch or two. Everyone's eyes opened wide at that and then they scrambled to the center of the small space and away from the walls.

Zeke was practically manhandled to the other end of the space with his small blowtorch and told to cut his way into the next section of hull.

They crawled out into a much larger space. It was one of the mini cargo areas attached to each passenger section. A little scrounging around found them some more of Paris' alcohol. The bottles were quickly turned into lamps by jamming material into the neck of the bottle and then lighting it on fire. The little power generator was started up and the tube lighting turned on.

This, of course, upset the big raptor and the two little juvenile ones that had gotten inside the cargo hold.

Gambit had charged a small piece of metal the size of an old fashioned nut and threw it in the air between the two little ones. It raced towards them glowing bright pink until it exploded in a shower of fire and a loud echoing bang. One of them had screeched something awful and flown off. The other one crashed into a wall and then fell to the floor dead. They weren't sure if the explosion killed it or if it died when it hit the steel wall.

The big one they managed to box into a corner with their lights. Angry and in pain, the thing screeched and yelled, lashing out with its talons and claws before pulling them back away from the light. Strangely enough, the light really did hurt it. Its flesh bubbled up in hissing, popping boils that stank greatly.

Gambit was gonna charge up another bit of metal and throw it at the thing when Riddick stepped in and danced around its talons, blocking a few hits that had swung hard enough to rattle and break bone. The man really was that strong. Then, he twirled to the side, crouched down low and leaned. He paused to stillness in a graceful lunge that displayed all his muscles in long sexy lines. The creature laid at his feet, its underbelly ripped open and its entrails spilling out along the floor. Then he turned his head and smiled.

The boy seemed to be on the edge of panic, clinging to a startled and pale Imam. Zeke simply looked horrified and just a touch grossed out. It was a toss up as to which freaked them out more, the raptor's insides or Riddick's skill at killing.

Gambit just reached down and adjusted himself in his tight leather armor.

"Damn, dat was hot, homme." Gambit leered as he looked Riddick up and down. "Ya gotta stop all dis flirtin'. Po' boy like myself can' take much more of dis before he loose control."

Riddick's smile slid into a smug smirk even as Imam and Zeke turned to look at Gambit with incredulous horror.

Gambit, for his part turned a confused gaze on the two men. "Wha?"

Imam merely blinked, but Zeke's face screwed up again as he pointed first at Riddick than Gambit. "He…You…uh, I…"

Gambit rolled his eyes before spinning around and stomping off, muttered words drifting along in his wake. "S'not Remy's fault de man be all flirty an' sexy."

Zeke elbowed Imam and whispered at him, "I don't know what's scarier; the flying flesh eating monsters outside or the two psycho killers falling in love inside."

Imam just nodded in silent agreement.

Riddick threw back his head and laughed with delight.

* * *

It didn't take much time to find a piece of hull that was big enough to hold the power cells, light enough to drag behind them, and shaped curved enough to glide over the sand easily. In fact, it seemed almost too easy and quick. Imam was willing to see it as providence from a semi-benevolent God that wanted them to succeed. Gambit was a bit more cynical and figured that meant something else would go wrong in a most spectacular way at a later point.

Zeke wasn't one for philosophical discussions or debates and ignored the minor argument in favor of rigging up some sort of way to pull the thing. His practical nature and wide range of skills came in pretty handy just then. Gambit didn't think he'd ever make a good General, but he made a damn fine Straw-Boss.

He managed to fix things so that there were two harnesses on the far edges of the skid and one big harness in the middle. The big harness was meant for Riddick. He was a great fighter, yes, but he was also the strongest person there. Gambit would have called it mutant enhanced strength if he didn't know better, but Imam and Zeke just thought of it as inhuman. That didn't mean they weren't willing to use that strength to their advantage.

While Riddick could most likely drag the skid by himself, that wasn't fair. It also would wear the big man down too fast and they might need his strength to fight off more of the creatures if they came at Gambit in too great a number. That's what the smaller harnesses were for. One on each end to help pull and steer. These were meant for Imam and Zeke. The boy would tend to the flares and burning alcohol bottles until one of them needed a breather, and then he would take either Imam's or Zeke's place for a bit.

Gambit, being both armed and armored and having the ability to create explosions of fire, sound, and light, would be their defender against the creatures. Hopefully, the emergency tube lighting and flares would be enough of a deterrent that he wouldn't need to do anything but run along behind the skid.


	4. Chapter 4

They had been jogging for a while now.

Riddick was in the middle harness and it was mostly his strength that was pulling the skid along. Imam was on his left and Zeke on his right. They were also hooked up to harnesses and helped pull, but mainly they helped to steer the thing. The boy was jogging along the left side of the skid and Gambit on the right.

The small power generator was sitting on the skid and was connected to the long flexible tubes from the emergency lighting tracks. The tubes' glow, which seemed a dim blue to normal eyes, was a blinding brightness to photosensitive eyes. Riddick in particular was sensitive to the UV rays it put out.

Imam, his boy, and Zeke all held a bottle of alcohol with a lit wick in it along with a couple flares being held in reserve incase the raptors decided to brave the lamps. Gambit had the pockets of his trench coat filled with bits and pieces of metal that he could charge with his mutant biokinetic energy easily enough. That he jingled and jangled with every step only made him miss his poker cards even more. He had yet to find a store that carried them in this strange mishmash of planets that was the future.

The heat was slowly fading from the air now that the suns were hidden. But that was like saying that instead of standing in front of three blast furnaces, he was only standing in front of one. The sand was still scorching hot and waves of heat were billowing out of the dunes and into the cooling night air.

And they were jogging.

He wished he had thought to bring along some water. Riddick could probably run through this mess of intense heat, minimal water, and low oxygen air for hours and still be going strong. Gambit had been trained to ignore a lot of physical punishment when he had to and to stubborn his way through it, though he'd pay for it later. The other three were trying. It was a valiant effort and it spoke more to their strength of character than anything else, but the fact was; the forced jog was starting to get to them.

"Eh…Riddick? Let's slow it down t' a walk for a bit, heh?"

Gambit made his way around the skid and crossed in front of Zeke to reach the big man. Once there he caught his eyes and tipped his head back to the others.

"Let people catch dere breath a bit."

Riddick arched one eyebrow, but he grunted in a way that reminded him of Wolverine and carefully began to slow his jog to a walk.

Gambit's lips pulled into a small smile that was a touch bittersweet. This strange future he'd found himself in was fascinating and filled with lots of things to discover and exciting things to experience. Yet, despite it all, he couldn't help but be drawn to his memories again and again. He missed his friends, his teammates, and his enemies. He missed the constant struggle for equality and recognition that the X-Men fought for. He missed the violence of the Marauders and their moral-less and conscienceless joy in living life to the fullest. He missed the strict professionalism and fierce pride of the Thieves Guild as they managed feats of daring and cunning.

Most of all, he missed the people. Those larger than life personalities that had helped shape him into who he was. Maybe that's why he was so drawn to Riddick and Imam, but could barely spare a glance for anyone else. Riddick could, without a doubt, be welcomed onto any number of X-teams that Gambit had known. His feral nature wouldn't have frightened the team off; instead it would be carefully nurtured and catered to. All the best teams had someone that was very much like a living tank; someone hard to hurt, hard to stop, and that could deal out punishment as easily as they could absorb it.

Wolverine and Rogue had acted as the X-Men's tanks; their battle anchors. Gambit could also do so, if needed, but that wasn't his best placement on the team.

The Marauders tended to use Blockbuster as their tank. As with the X-Men, Gambit could and had severed in that position. He didn't like it though and preferred not to take that role. The problem was, Gambit couldn't absorb the amount of damage that a true tank could. Oh, he could dish it out, but he relied on armor and dodging hits to get through a battle. He didn't have advanced regeneration, healing or an insanely high pain tolerance.

In truth, if this mess had been a team mission then Riddick would be the one acting as tank. First in and last out, dishing out death and absorbing the worst of the attacks. Gambit would act as his support, bouncing around him and attacking from the flanks. Unfortunately, Riddick's strength was needed to haul the power cells and his loyalty to the group was questionable at best.

If it had been Wolverine out here with them, Gambit would have been the one in harness and dragging the power cells. Logan was someone that Gambit would easily trust with his money, his name, and even his life. He was also a professional operative and when he said he'd do something, it got done. It was as simple as that. Gambit didn't know enough about Riddick yet to trust his word …nor to know just what code the man lived by. That meant he was unpredictable.

For the hundredth time, Gambit swore that Logan better remember him or he'd kick his runty ass after all this shit.

"Listen."

Riddick's voice pulled Gambit out of his circular and unproductive thoughts.

At first, all he heard was the clicking and wailing of the flying raptors overhead and the ragged panting for breath of the three normal humans with them. It was a confusing kaleidoscope of sound until he started to truly pay attention to what he was hearing.

"What? I do not understand? What is it we are listening for?"

Gambit tilted his head and slid his eyes over to Riddick. He ignored Imam's question to ask his own.

"Dere's a whole mess a' dem things up ahead, ain't dere?"

Riddick nodded and pointed right in front of them.

"The canyon is just past this ridge. I've seen a few of those things fly that way, but none leave. I can hear a lot of them, though, ripping each other to shreds."

Just then, Gambit watched as a raptor soared overhead and then dipped below the ridge. Riddick gave him a smug look as if to say, 'told you so'. Gambit sighed and considered it for a moment.

"Can we go 'round it?"

Riddick shrugged.

"Sure. We can also get lost out in that desert that stretches on for miles in every direction. I know how to get to the settlement through the canyon. Going around it could put us miles off course and we'd never realize we passed the place we're looking for if it's hidden behind a ridge or dune."

"Riddick's right."

Riddick's eyebrow went up in an arch and he smirked over his shoulder at Zeke, who looked a bit shocked that he was agreeing with the convict.

"As much as I'd like to avoid a canyon full of those…things, I also don't want to wander around the desert until our light fails or we drop from lack of food and water."

Gambit nodded and sighed. This is why he hated leadership roles.

"Okay. Everyone jus' relax fo' a moment. Catch your breath an' try t' work out de tension in your muscles. Gambit gonna sneak up de ridge an' spy down int' de canyon. Try an' figure out de best way t' make it through. Don' want t' go in blind an' try t' figure it out in de middle o'a fight wit' de raptors."

Riddick snorted. Gambit rolled his eyes and turned away, leaving Imam and Zeke to try and stretch out their backs after hauling the sled through the sand.

The canyon was a break in the tall and nearly sheer face of the ridge that divided the desert into lower and upper halves. The wreck was in the lower half and the settlement in the upper. The canyon was wide and open despite being filled with old bones and tumbled stones for the first half of its length. The second half was a shallow grade that was narrow in spots and jammed in others with rock and bone. It would be difficult to get the power cells through that in the best of conditions.

This was far from the best conditions.

From about midway up the canyon's walls, the air was filled with swooping and diving raptors as they fought and battled one another. The losers were torn to shreds and eaten by the others while the victor went on to battle again. Blue-gray blood dripped from the sky like morbid rain and the stench was unreal. Macabre.

Only decades of training and battlefield experience kept Gambit from flinching or striking out when Riddick sidled up next to him and peered into the canyon. His silvery eyes shone in the dim starlight as he looked this way and that.

"Well?"

Gambit pointed at the beginning of the canyon run and then followed an imaginary path past one of the skeletons that looked like a whale-elephant hybrid.

"Dat will most likely be de easiest route t' take de sled. Ground seems smooth an' it heads directly t' de grade leading out a' de canyon."

Riddick studied the terrain for a moment then pointed over to a crack in the far canyon wall that was about two people wide.

"What about that. Looks like it leads up to the surface faster. Plus, being narrow there will be less of a chance for those raptors to fly down."

Gambit studied it for a moment and considered everything. Finally he shook his head.

"Naw. Too narrow fo' de sled an' it's a bit steep fo' de others. If it was jus' y' an' me, then I'd agree, but Zeke, Imam an' de boy would struggle even wit'out de weight a' de power cells."

Silver eyes slid over to him and narrowed thoughtfully.

"That's a lot of raptors up in the sky to keep off our backs and out in the main part of the canyon even the biggest ones can fly down."

Gambit looked up at the sky full of bloodthirsty beasts and ginned a slightly manic grin of anticipation.

"Dat's Gambit's job. Dere's gonna be lots a' explosions soon. He gonna fill de sky wit' fire an' noise."

Then he turned to look right at the other man, his grin fading away to a serious expression. "You need t' get dat sled as far through dat canyon as y' can before de shit hits de fan. We can expect at least a few raptors t' get past de explosions. Once dat happens, get Suleiman t' take y' spot pullin' an' gut all of dem dat gets close enough."

A wild grin split Riddick's face and his eyes shone with an excitement and blood thirst of their own. It took a brief moment for him to struggle back away from the edge of violence and get his head back in the game and on the plan.

"I'll have them break out one of the flares before we enter the killing floor and have the second one ready to go at a moments notice."

Gambit nodded. "Good idea."

Then he sighed.

"Gambit ain't gonna travel de canyon wit' you."

Riddick's eyes narrowed dangerously, a low growl rumbling in his chest. Gambit lifted one eyebrow.

"He needs t' have room t' work, room t' see." He gestured towards the canyon, taking in the ground, the walls, and the sky above. "Need t' be able t' tell de best place t' send m' kinetic bombs. T' do dat Gambit has t' see de whole picture, not jus' de little slice from de ground."

Riddick's expression cleared and he grunted. "Overwatch."

Gambit nodded. "Better den any sniper y' worked wit' before, guarantee."

He turned and reached up for a handhold on the rock face in front of him before pausing a second.

"Riddick."

A grunt was his only answer.

"If Gambit don't meet y' at de top a' de canyon, get de others movin' t' de settlement. Gambit will catch up wit' y'…or not. Don' wait around. Jus' keep 'em movin'."

He startled slightly as a big hand clamped around his neck and twisted him around. He found himself pressed up tightly to Riddick's heavily muscled chest. The hand on the back of his neck pressed tight enough to bruise and his head was pulled back and to the side slightly.

"You better make it through this to the end, Remy…or I'll ghost you myself." He was shaken slightly. "You owe me a fuck, remember?"

Then he was pulled down and into a brutal kiss that was more about domination than pleasure. Gambit reached out and gripped Riddick's arms even as he fought to control the kiss. After a moment, he sighed and relaxed into it, submitting.

Riddick broke the kiss and gave Gambit a light shove away, smirking. Gambit just scowled and reached down to adjust himself in his tight pants.

"Damn crazy fool, goin' an' distractin' Gambit at a time like dis wit' his damn sexy an' flirty ways."

Riddick tipped back his head and barked out a soft laugh before drifting back into the shadows and the night. Gambit rolled his eyes and finally got himself adjusted to minimize the discomfort his arousal caused.

"Gettin' too old fo' dis shit."

Turning back, Gambit reached up for a handhold on the rock face and slowly pulled himself up bit by bit until he was partway up the rock face. He didn't know how long he could move about without attracting the attentions of the raptors, so he didn't go too far. Just enough to give him a good starting point. Once the fireworks started, Gambit was going to be constantly on the move, jumping from firing point to firing point.

After an eternity that was really only about ten minutes, he saw the lights from the sled coming around the edge of the ravine. The raptors all saw it too as they swooped and dove, circling around the small bubble of protective light. It was now or never.

Reaching into his coat pocket, Gambit pulled out a flat rectangular bit of metal about the length of his hand. He charged it up to full capacity and then with a flick of his wrist, he let it fly. It sizzled and fried the air around it until it hit the belly of the biggest of the raptors.

ZZZZZZ-KABOOOOM!

The explosion was huge, shredding the raptor instantly and sending a fireball the size of a compact car billowing up into the air with streamers of flames and light drifting across the sky. Several smaller raptors were killed or injured as they tumbled from the air and to the ground with the scorched pieces of the big one that had been Gambit's target. Many others turned on a wing and flew away screeching in fright and anger.

Reaching down, he scooped up a handful of pebbles and charged them all. Then, twisting back his arm, he pitched them all up into the air in an arc.

Zzzz-Boom! Zzzz-Boom! Zzzz-Boom! Zzzz-Boom!

A smaller raptor was blown up completely and one of the larger ones had its right wing completely sheered off. It spiraled down out of control to crash into the side wall of the canyon. Four smaller fireballs lit up the sky, singeing the rest and sending them flying away.

The sled was most of the way through the first part of the canyon. He could faintly hear Riddick yelling for the other's to "Run, damn it. Run!"

Gambit took a deep breath and leapt off the side of the ravine wall and tumbled through the air. He landed on a spire of crumbling rock in a deep crouch. He could tell right away that it wouldn't hold his weight for long, so he simply used it as a springboard and was soon flipping through the air again. He ended his gymnastics in a three-point landing atop the spine bones of one of the fossilized behemoths.

As soon as he was sure of his balance, he dipped his free hand into his coat pocket and pulled out a rounded bit of metal. He charged it up and flicked his wrist towards the upward grade of the second half of the canyon.

Zzzz-Boom!

The burning air there soon cleared of raptors leaving only booming fire and noise. Then Gambit shifted his weight and dipped his other hand into a different pocket and pulled out a heavy bolt the size of his thumb.

He charged the bolt even as he stood up and pulled his arm back. He threw the sizzling bolt as high into the air above the sled as he could.

ZZZZZZ-KABOOOOM!

A huge explosion lit up the sky over his companions and knocked several raptors to the ground. He watched as Riddick slid out of his harness and leapt on the biggest one, his knives gleaming in the firelight.

Suleiman dashed around the sled and quickly picked up Riddick's harness. It was a bit big for the young teen, but he didn't hesitate to put his back into it and try to pick up the slack. The sled started moving again, even if it was a bit slower.

Gambit could feel the movement of something large and fast slicing through the air above and behind him as his kinetic sense screamed at him from all sides and struggled to keep track of everything happening around him. Taking a deep breath, he flexed his knees and leapt off of the monster's bones and flipped through the air while sending a charged bit of plastic at the creature closing in on him.

ZZZZ-BOOM!

The force of the explosion sent him tumbling even faster and he could feel the heat of the fire licking at him as he slammed hard onto the rock ledge of the canyon's wall. Raptor blood and smoking body parts rained down around him. Clinging tight with his fingertips, Gambit pivoted on his feet so that he could turn around and face the battle. He hadn't felt this alive since before he'd awoken in the cryo-chamber in Sinister's lab.

Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, a loud rumbling rolled across the sky and the very ground seemed to tremble. Gambit clung desperately to his narrow perch and watched with a sort of sick fascination as the skies opened up and a deluge began to pour down, soaking his armor through with slick oddly scented rain. Immediately, his fires began to sputter and die away.

"Well, ain't dat a bitch." He glared up at the heavens. "Did'ja have t' turn up de level on de danger? Weren't we facin' enough?"

A scream of terror and pain yanked Gambit out of his thoughts and back to the battle at hand. He was just in time to see Riddick yank one of the smaller infants off of Suleiman and snap its neck. The teen was obviously injured, but he waved the others on and started to pull the sled again, so Gambit turned his attentions to what he could do. The rain would dampen his explosions, but he could still set them. They'd just have to have more charge to them and he was already exhausted, overheated, and thirsty as hell.

Pushing aside his body's complaints for later, if there was a later, Gambit snapped off a bit of the crumbling rock he was clinging to and poured as much charge into it as it would hold. Then with a flick of his wrist, he sent it flying high into the air over the group pulling the sled.

Zzzz-BOOM!

Several raptors spun away from the noise and the light and two of the littler ones fell from the sky. Unfortunately, the curls of fire didn't last very long as the rain quickly snuffed them out.

Gambit leapt off of his perch and landed on a spire of rock. He springboarded off of it and onto another ledge further along the ravine and a bit higher up. Clinging with one hand, he reached into a pocket and pulled out a handful of metal nuts and washers. He charged them as much as he could and then flung them up into the air in a curving arc over the path the sled would be taking.

Zzzz-Boom! Zzzz-Boom! Zzzz-Boom! Zzzz-Boom!

His explosions lit up the canyon enough for him to see that the number of raptors here had been drastically reduced. This was partly because he and Riddick were killing any that got too close, and partly because the light and noise was warning away those raptors that would have shown up to reinforce their numbers. That was a good thing. The bad thing was that the rain was turning the floor of the ravine into muddy soup. He could clearly see that Zeke, Imam, and Suleiman were struggling to move the heavy weight up the muddy grade.

"Riddick!" Iman's voice sounded far away. "The sled, it is stuck!"

Gambit watched, enthralled as the man turned back to the others, his silvery eyes shining in the light of the UV tubes and the flickering remains of the fires. His skin was slick with rain and his clothes were splattered with dark mud and blue blood. His shivs dripped gore. Damn, he was sexy.

He couldn't hear if any words were exchanged, but Suleiman slipped out of the harness and handed it off to Riddick. Riddick wrapped the strap around his shoulders and leaned into it. Gambit could clearly see how the big man's muscles jumped and flexed in his arms, shoulders and neck. Sexy, strong and dangerous.

Then again, Gambit always did like playing with fire.

Slowly, and then with more speed, Riddick got the sled unstuck from the mud and moving up the ravine again. It was Suleiman cracking two more flares and pulling up the rear that got Gambit into motion again himself.

Picking up a rock the size of a baseball, Gambit charged it as much as he could and then heaved it up into the air in the direction the sled was heading to try and open up the space ahead of his companions.

ZZZZZZ-KABOOOOM!

The rock exploded between two large raptors and they spiraled out of control in two separate directions. The smaller raptors screeched in pain and zipped away from the burning light.

Gambit leapt from his perch and down to the ground. The mud was slick and the footing unsure. He ended up rolling to absorb the blow and then climbing to his feet. He ran up behind the sled and grinned manically at Suleiman who gave a little cry at his arrival.

"Hey, all. Did'ja miss, m'?"

Riddick snorted and Zeke craned his head around to stare at him in astonishment. It was Imam that answered, of sorts.

"We are almost out of the canyon. Hopefully, the danger will be greatly lessened then."

"Dat'd be nice."

Gambit wasn't holding out hope for that, however. Instead, he dipped his hand down in his pocket and pulled out the last bit of metal he had stored away. He charged it up and felt his body strain to pour the energy into the metal. He was going to be hung-over like a bitch after this from overuse of his powers after so long of not pushing himself.

Then he flicked his wrist and sent the bit of metal sailing up into the air behind them at the pack of hungry raptors trailing them.

Zzzzz-Boom!

Three of the little ones crashed to the ground dead. A big one screeched and pulled back, the skin of its head and claws blistered and burnt.

"Almost there." Riddick called out.

Gambit spun around and dashed past the side of the sled and the three men pulling it. When he got to the edge of the ravine, he peered up over it to the flat of the desert and saw a bunch of those raptors waiting. He ground his teeth in exasperation and considered things quickly.

He was tiring out faster than he'd liked. He was, in his opinion, woefully out of shape. There had been a time when he'd be able to do this all day and all night, but he'd not been able to go all out with his fighting skills and his kinetic powers since he'd awoken. A full day of baking under three scorching hot suns with little water, food and low levels of oxygen had taken its toll as well.

He was highly impressed and turned on by the fact that Riddick had basically shrugged all that off as a minor inconvenience.

Still, the truth of the matter was, he wasn't going to be able to keep charging things for very much longer without food or rest. He needed to clear off this ledge and fast. He needed to get the biggest bang for his buck. Reaching down, he unhooked one of the flares from his belt and hefted it in his hand. Sighing, he glanced down at it.

"Dangerous, Gambit. Very dangerous. Unstable t' begin wit'. Y' sure y' want t' blow dis?"

Rolling his eyes at himself, Gambit began to pour every bit of charge into the flare that he could.

"Papa always did say Gambit be a fool."

The flare began to sizzle and glow in his hand and still he poured more energy into it. Just as he began to sway on his feet with exhaustion, Gambit whipped back his arm and then let it fly high up into the air and over the edge of the ravine.

ZZZZZ-KKAAA-BBOOOOOOMMMM!

The night sky lit up for a mile in every direction as a fireball the size of a small house flash fried a dozen raptors in one explosion. Burning body parts went flying every which way and the backlash of heat washed back down the ravine with the god-awful stench of cooked raptor flesh and chemicals.

A whistle of amused appreciation came from just behind him and Gambit turned his head slightly to see Riddick standing there with one hand raised to shield his squinting eyes.

"Very nice," his voice was a husky rumble that made Gambit's abs tighten in arousal.

Gambit smirked.

"T'anks."

Then he swayed slightly, exhaustion pulling at him even more than before. One of Riddick's eyebrows rose in question.

"You okay?"

Gambit nodded and winced.

"Jus' tired. Over use de powers an' it be sorta like drinkin' t' much. Light headed an' tired. Gonna be all hung-over later, me."

Curiosity danced behind those silver eyes, but Riddick just nodded. Now was not the time for long discussions.

"Hopefully, jus' be a simple trek t' de settlement. Flares an' tube lights should be enough, jus' like before de canyon."

Riddick snorted his doubt of that, but nodded and picked up the harness again. He swung it over his shoulders and tossed Gambit a grin.

"Just try and keep up. No time for napping yet."

Gambit huffed a laugh, then bowed with an arm extended to gesture Riddick and the sled forward out of the ravine. "After y', Monsieur."

Riddick leaned into the harness and started the sled up again. Gambit slid easily in next to Imam and over-shared with a half chuckled, "Hate t' see him go, but damn, Gambit love t' watch him leave."

Imam glanced over at him, his face a mixture of exhaustion and amusement.

"I did not need to hear that, my friend."

Gambit flashed him a grin that was full of mischievousness. "Ass dat fine is meant t' be admired."

Zeke stumbled slightly and mumbled, "Lunatics. I'm surrounded by flesh eating monsters from hell and sex-crazed lunatics."

Riddick barked out a loud laugh, but didn't say anything.

Once they managed to get past the blast radius of Gambit's last kinetic bomb, the raptors began to circle them again. They were a little closer than before because of the rain, but the UV tube lighting still kept them back. It seems that the ones gathered at the canyon were braver, or perhaps thought to use the tight quarters against them. Out in the open, they didn't seem to want to risk the light as much.

This was great news as far as Gambit was concerned. He was running on fumes by this point and the three normal humans were obviously reaching the end of their limits. The heat, the low oxygen, and the punishing physical labor were all working against them despite the adrenaline in their systems. It was only a matter of time till one of them crashed.

Suddenly, a spark of light was seen far on the horizon. Gambit's heart swelled with hope.

"Is dat de settlement?"

"Yeah." Riddick shifted their direction slightly and headed straight for it. "Johns must have the ship lit up for us to find it."

Zeke tilted his head and looked at the big man, an expression of confusion on his face.

"How do you know it's not Fry that's burning the lights? After all, I thought you hated Johns."

Riddick shook his head.

"Fry doesn't have a clue. I doubt she's ever been in a mess even close to this. It's all she could do to keep from falling apart from the get go. Johns is an asshole, but he knows his shit. I've been in more than one mess with him. The morphine fucks him up a lot, and he'd kill you without remorse if you got in the way of his payday…which is me if you didn't realize it. But he can think under fire."

Both Imam and Zeke looked confused and doubtful. Gambit just nodded.

"Let me guess…took some innocents hostage an' offered t' set 'em free if y' gave yourself up?"

Riddick nodded once.

"Kids. Blew one child's head apart to prove he would do it." He shrugged and scowled fiercely. "Gave myself up at that point. Figured I could escape latter."

Imam's head snapped back as if he was slapped.

"No. He wouldn't do such a horrid thing. That would be…evil."

Riddick and Gambit both slid their eyes over to look at him, hints of pity mingled with sad amusement.

"M' first wife, Belladonna, was an arraigned marriage. M' papa, he de head o' de Thieves Guild an' Bella's papa be de head o' de Assassins Guild. We were only 'bout sixteen at de time." Gambit shrugged. "Was meant t' stop de blood feud 'tween de Guilds."

"Did it work?" There was a strange tension in Riddick's voice.

Gambit shrugged. "Meh…"

"Pro'lly worked better if'n I didn' kill her brother Julian de day o' de weddin' an' end up banished."

Riddick snorted.

"Bella dead long time now an' we never did have no kids, so…" Gambit shrugged again. "De point be, for some folk, killin' ain't personal. It's jus' a payday. Some killers be sloppy an' get caught or get ot'er folk tangled up in dere mess. Some are professionals an' de law never know dat it was dem dat did de killin'."

"Johns is the professional type." Riddick cut in. "It's just the morphine that makes him sloppy and careless."

Imam shook his head. "I don't like to think that there are men such as that out in the universe."

Gambit shrugged and offered up a slightly manic smile with undertones of apology.

"Not ever'one can be a contemplative an' peaceful man a' God."


	5. Chapter 5

Gambit was so tired. He could feel the exhaustion sapping his strength and weighing down his bones even as his head felt light and fizzy from overuse of his powers. The others were just as badly off. Well, except for Riddick.

He could easily see Zeke's limbs tremble. Sweat poured down his face and his eyes were staring to glaze over. Imam's normally dark skin was ashy and a faint wheeze had entered his chest with each breath as he forced himself to endure beyond his body's own limits. Suleiman was the worst off. His back and left shoulder were injured by that infant raptor and his shirt was slick with rain and blood. The boy was extremely pale and his steps were starting to falter as he swayed slightly from side to side.

Riddick, on the other hand, seemed to be just hitting his stride. His breathing was even, his muscles were strong and he radiated a feral sense of power and supremacy. Even through the thick coating of mud, rain, and raptor gore Gambit found him to be incredibly sexy.

His hazy thoughts drifted into a delightful little daydream imagining what it would be like to have all that power and strength focused on him as he wrapped his thighs around the man and rode him hard. It was a lovely way to spend the time as they trudged through the muddy sands towards the glowing light of salvation in the distance.

At least it was a good distraction until Suleiman's strength finally gave out and he tumbled to the ground with a soft cry of pain. Imam let out a whining sound of distress and began to pull off his harness, but Gambit waved him away.

"I's got 'im."

Turning, he sprinted over to the fallen teen and carefully assessed his injury. He glanced up to look at the worried man.

"He's alive. Just tired an' hurtin'. He be needin' de med-kit when we gets t' de ship, but he'll make it."

With a grunt of exertion, Gambit helped the teen back up to his feet. He wrapped Suleiman's right arm up and over his own shoulders and grasped the hand tightly to keep it in place. Then he wrapped his other arm around Suleiman's waist and helped the boy stay on his feet even as they began walking again.

In his mind, Gambit knew that the boy wasn't that heavy. He was tall, but thin and he wasn't wearing armor. That didn't stop him from feeling as heavy as Logan though to Gambit's weary muscles. Even more distressing was that the exhaustion in his mind was playing merry hell with his kinetic sense. The entire sky seemed to him, to be filled with a rolling and boiling cloud of clicking, hissing, gliding death.

Oh yeah. This macabre trek through the desert was going to revisit him in his nightmares for sure.

Then, just when Gambit was worried that he'd have to toss a rapidly weakening Suleiman over his shoulder in a fireman's hold, the desert they were crossing began to slope down a low dune and they were looking at the settlement at the bottom. The settlement was dark and a cloud of the raptors flew overhead, but the ship was lit up like a sparkling jewel in the night.

"Praise be to Allah!" Imam's voice was whisper soft but the sentiment was heartfelt as was Zeke's "Amen!"

Riddick just snorted softly and began dragging the sled again.

Hope and the promise of rest can do amazing things to a desperate man and this showed in the fact that for once, Zeke and Imam weren't struggling to keep up with the pace set by the huge convict. Even Suleiman seemed to have an easier time of it now that he could see their goal shining in front of him.

Then they were there, stumbling to a stop beside the boarding ramp of the sleek little emergency craft. Johns was standing at the top of the ramp with his shotgun and a bottle of alcohol with an unlit wick stuffed in the neck. His face was drawn with stress and he looked bone tired. Then he got a good look at the boy and scowled.

"Fuck! Another one!"

Gambit's eyes narrowed even as he carefully passed Suleiman's weight over to an anxious and waiting Imam.

"Anodder? Explain!"

Before he could speak, Imam had carried his son up the ramp. Then stopped. "Oh."

Johns glanced behind him and sighed deeply before shaking his head slightly.

"Go on. Go see Shazza. She has the med-kit."

Then he turned back to face them, his eyes lingering on Riddick and Zeke unloading the power cells before turning back to face Gambit.

"We realized that we were going to need supplies on this ship if we were going to survive long enough for someone to find us. There's no cryo-chambers on board, so that means air, food, and water. So, we teamed up. We raided the settlement for anything we could find. I went with Shazza and Fry went with Paris. The kids stayed on board to put everything away in the cargo hold. It's not a lot of space, but…" He shrugged as his voice trailed off.

Riddick stomped between them as he headed up the ramp with a huge power cell balanced up on one shoulder, his heavily muscled arm up to keep it in place. "Let me guess. The eclipse happened and shit hit the fan when your civvies panicked?"

Johns' scowl shifted into a glare of hate. Riddick just smirked and continued on into the ship. Then Johns sighed and shook his head before turning back to Gambit.

"Hate to admit it, but that fucker's right. Shazza and Fry held it together okay. At least enough to listen to orders. But that nitwit Paris panicked and then tried to pull a runner. Ran right into a big group of them monsters, but not before he shoved Fry out of the way."

Gambit swallowed hard and just wanted to collapse. He was dirty, tired, and the beginning of a huge power-drain hangover was starting to pound his head behind his eyes. He didn't want to hear what the merc had to say because he knew it was going to be bad. Instead, he just lifted one hand and made a 'gimme' gesture.

"Paris got himself shredded by those…things. Took less than a minute to reduce him to nothing but gore and bones. One of them grabbed Fry when she fell. I was able to chase the fuckin' thing off while Shazza pulled her to safety, but her leg was chewed up pretty bad. Shazza tried to patch her up best she could…"

Johns grimaced then. "If we get her medical treatment fast enough I think she'll live, but my best guess is that the leg is a goner either way."

"Merde!" Gambit clenched his fists and shut his eyes. He was so kicking Logan's ass when he found the old man.

Then Riddick was back and stomping down the ramp and headed for the sled and the rest of the power cells Zeke had unstrapped.

"Riddick."

The man turned to look at him, those dark goggles once again hiding his silvery eyes. Gambit took a second to miss the view of them gleaming in the dark.

"Can you pilot this ship?"

Riddick snorted. "Easily." Then he bent down and picked up another power cell.

Gambit nodded and watched the big man's muscles flex as he lifted the heavy thing up and onto his shoulder in one fluid motion. Damn. That was hot. If he wasn't so tired, he'd be sporting a boner over that show of strength. He grinned. "Dere he go flirtin' again, showin' off dem sexy muscles."

Riddick smirked and turned to walk back up the ramp.

Gambit waved Johns down the ramp. "Come on an' help. Faster we get these things in de ship, de faster we get off dis hellhole, heh?"

Johns nodded and slid the strap of his shotgun over his arm and shoulder so that it rode along his back. Then he trotted down the ramp and over to the sled. They both bent down and grabbed the edge of the same power cell. Riddick might be able to lift one by himself, but it took the rest of them two people to move the heavy things.

"You know…" Johns spoke in a whisper, his voice carrying undertones of secrecy and darkness. "Those two are only going to hurt our chances."

Gambit frowned, his eyebrows drawing down over his eyes. He had a feeling he knew where this was going and he didn't like it.

"Huh? Wha'chu mean?"

Johns rolled his eyes even as they lifted the power cell.

"Fry and the kid." He tilted his head in the direction of the ship. Gambit's frown deepened and Johns sighed. "Look. See for yourself what I'm talking about. You'll understand exactly what I mean."

With a huff, but not arguing at the moment, Gambit led the way up the ramp. It was difficult moving the power cell. The balance was awkward on an incline and the thing was big and heavy. They finally got it up into the main cargo hold and then they had to maneuver around the people inside. It was a tight fit.

Shazza had the kids sitting behind the pilot and navigator chairs in an effort to stay out from underfoot. There were two small bunks. Fry was laid out on one. Her left leg from mid thigh down was a mangled mess that looked like ground hamburger and bone wrapped in tons of gauze. Suleiman was sitting up on the other bunk with Imam bracing him while Shazza stitched up a long gash down his back.

Closer to the hatch doors, Riddick and Zeke were hooking up a power cell. The access panel was pulled off and two of the old burnt out power cells were set off to the side as they manhandled one from the Hunter-Gratzner into place. It wasn't a perfect fit as they were two different models and makes.

"Set that down here." Riddick pointed to a spot off to his right. Then he jerked his thumb over towards the old power cells. "And dump those two outside. We don't need them and they're just eating up space."

Gambit and Johns put down the power cell and then headed for the old ones. They tipped them on their sides and just rolled them down the ramp as they were cylinder shaped. Before he exited the ship, Gambit glanced back over his shoulder for another look over at Fry.

Sighing, he walked down the ramp and over to the blonde merc with a grimace twisting his lips. Fry was in bad shape. She was pale and sweating and her leg was a goner. It would be best to just amputate it and cauterize the wound.

"See what I mean?" Johns' voice was a whisper in his ear again and Gambit silently cursed the fates for dropping him in this mess.

"Her leg…" Gambit sighed and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose even as Johns nodded.

"Yeah. Exactly." He looked back over his shoulder up the ramp quickly before turning back to Gambit. "If we had the medical supplies for it and a dry clean place away from those hellbeasts, I'd say cut the damn thing off and cauterize it."

Gambit nodded in agreement. He'd had the same thought. Unfortunately, they didn't have a way to do that without killing her. Oh, Gambit's bo staff still had the modification that Apocalypse made, so he had cutting blades that would easily sheer through limbs. Even a thigh bone. But they had no way to cauterize the wound and with the rain pissing down so heavily, there was no way to build up a fire hot enough to do the job. Her only hope was getting her to a real medical facility. Fast.

"The kid is nearly as bad."

Gambit shot him a look. That wasn't true. Suleiman's wounds were deep, but much cleaner. He'd been sliced open while Fry looked like she'd been chewed on. Still, he stayed silent, waiting for Johns to speak.

"Those two are dead weight. They're going to breathe our air, drink our water and eat our food. Then die on us. It sucks and it's harsh, but that's the truth. I say we cut them loose here and now. It'll lighten our weight and increase the amount of time we have with the life support systems."

Anger rose up inside him and his red on black eyes flared in the darkness. Johns stepped back and held up his hands in a gesture of peace even as he smirked slightly.

"Hey. Calm down. If it makes you feel better, we can even have Riddick ghost them first. He can do it fast and painless. A mercy killing, really."

All the anger, fear, and exhaustion he'd been fighting back since the eclipse started rushed up into his brain and sizzled across his thoughts as he glared at the merc. The Marauder in him agreed that Fry, at least, was as good as dead and should be left behind. That only made him angrier. It didn't help his mental state that his inner X-Man was horrified at the thought of leaving anyone behind and a soft seductive voice in the very back of his psyche that was the last remnant of the Horseman of Death wanted to pull out his bo staff and slaughter everyone and everything until he was the sole living being on the planet.

Half crazed, Gambit spun on his heel and slammed his fist into Johns' jaw. "Connard!"

Johns stumbled back, tripped over the edge of the ramp and fell to the ground in a roll. He came to a stop in a crouch, his eyes glaring up at Gambit as he snarled.

"Fuck! I've had it with you! You crazy motherfucker!"

Then he sprang up from the ground and pounced on Gambit. Gambit tried to dodge out of the way and normally that wouldn't have been a problem, but he was exhausted and ready to drop as it was so his reaction times were painfully sluggish. He managed to shift over enough to be caught in the arm instead of center mass and the two of them tumbled to the dirt in a tangle of limbs.

They came to a stop with Johns on top. The merc lashed out with a painful punch to Gambit's ribs and the only thing that saved the bones from shattering was his armor. He tried to shove Johns away, but his arms were trapped at his sides and he didn't have good leverage, so he whipped his head up and smashed the man's nose with his forehead. That did absolutely nothing to help his headache, but it loosened the merc's hold on him and he was able to roll them over.

Scrambling up off of the man while getting in a good kick to his knee, Gambit climbed to his feet and stepped back even as his hand dipped into a pocket on his armor and pulled out his bo. It was collapsed into a compact one foot long cylinder, but a push of a button and a flick of his wrist had it expanding to its full length. He spun it around, its polished adamantium form gleaming silvery in the light.

"The hell?..." Johns muttered as he dragged himself up.

Gambit swung the staff at Johns' legs, but the merc leapt over it and then dove to the side to miss the follow-up swing.

"Fuck this!" Johns shouted and jumped up onto the ramp. Then he twisted around and yanked his shotgun from its place on his back and swung it around. Gambit had half a second to realize he was staring down the barrel of his own death when suddenly Johns went stiff, a look of pained shock on his face. Then he crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut to reveal Riddick standing behind him with a bloody shiv in his hand.

With a look of contempt on his face, Riddick kicked Johns' corpse off the ramp and into the dirt. Then he strode down the ramp and over to Gambit. He eyed the gleaming staff for a moment, then smirked and reached up to push his goggles away from his eyes and to the top of his head.

"Thought I told you not to go and die on me. You owe me a fuck, Remy and I plan to collect."

"Good. Remy gonna hold y' t' that promise."

Then everything caught up to him all at once and his vision started going black around the edges. He had just enough energy to mutter, "merde" before the world rushed away and he felt his body begin to fall. He never even felt it when Riddick lunged forward and caught him before he hit the ground.

* * *

A deep thrumming sound that was more of a sensation than a true noise invaded his consciousness first.

Instinctively, he reached out with his sense of the kinetic and felt the ship around him hurtling through a vast void. He puzzled over that for a moment until he realized that he was in space once again. His brain was fuzzy and thick and he couldn't think right. Struggling, he tried to recall when the X-Men had decided to go off and visit the Shi'ar.

A cool damp cloth ran gently over his ribs and he sucked in a breath of chilled air.

Sparkles of pain from his tender ribs competed with the pleasure of having sweat and dirt washed away. At that point, the rest of his aches and pains chimed in and let themselves be known to him. He was starving, for one. And the pull of exhaustion was still lying heavy on him with a pounding in his head that spoke of a power-drain hangover. His ribs were bruised and the muscles of his back and legs were cramping as if he'd had one hell of a rough workout.

What the hell did he do to himself?

Then, all at once, memories poured into his slowly waking brain. He wasn't with the X-Men…he was a clone of Gambit and he was in some bizarre future. They'd crashed onto a hellish desert planet filled with flying bloodthirsty creatures. There was a fight across the desert.

Pain. Fear. Desperation.

Riddick.

Gambit's eyes snapped open to see that the young boy, Jack, was washing him down with a ragged bit of wet cloth. It felt good when the child stayed away from his ribs. His eyes glanced to the side and he saw Shazza and Zeke laying on the floor curled up around each other sleeping. He was sure they needed it as much as he had.

He turned his head to look on the other side of his body. He'd just had a glimpse of Imam tending to Fry and Hassan wiping down his armor when Jack leaned over him to beam a huge smile right at him.

"Gambit! You're awake!"

"Oui, petite…Gambit's awake. Was just tired, me."

One eyebrow arched up in an expression of blatant disbelief, but the boy didn't call him on his bullshit.

"Well, I'm glad you're awake now. I was worried about you."

Gambit reached up and ruffled the boy's bangs gently and grinned.

"Je suis desole, petite. Gambit didn't mean t' worry y' none."

The boy grinned wider and blushed before shifting away again. Gambit smirked and then sat up, only to look down at himself and gape slightly. He was naked except for his jock strap and cup.

Looking around, he saw his trench coat folded up neatly next to Hassan and his boots next to that. The child was currently trying to wipe a splash of blue raptor blood and a scorch mark off of his chest armor.

"Eh…why de hell Gambit naked?"

A snort of amusement came from the pilot's chair even as Jack blushed harder and Hassan giggled. It was Imam that answered.

"When you collapsed, Riddick brought you on board the ship. We didn't know if you had been badly injured or were bleeding under your armor. Shazza and I stripped you down to check for cuts or broken bones."

Gambit nodded.

"I see."

Then, ignoring his nudity since modesty was a moot point after everyone had already gotten a free show, Gambit pushed himself up to his feet. He swayed slightly and reached out to brace himself on Hassan's shoulder briefly.

"Where's Gambit's pants?"

Jack dropped the rag he'd been using and scrambled around to grab up Gambit's armored leather pants. He took them with a smile and nod before gesturing to Fry and Suleiman.

"How're dey doing?"

Imam frowned deeply and sighed.

"Suleiman is in much better shape than Miss Fry. Suleiman needed many stitches in his back, but I have great hope for his recovery." He paused and Gambit heard what he didn't say; that he had little to no hope for Fry's recovery. "Mr. Johns had a supply of morphine on the ship. I have been using it on Miss Fry to try and alleviate her pain."

Gambit nodded and clapped the man gently on the back.

"Y' a good man, Imam. If compassion were able t' heal a body, y'd have dem both on dere feet in an instant. Of dat, Gambit has no doubt."

Imam nodded in acknowledgment and offered up a small smile, but it was a sad one filled with a terrible knowledge and even worse burden. Sighing, Gambit turned and headed to the front of the ship carrying his pants.

When he got there, he slid around the pilots' chair and let his eyes roam over Riddick's heavily muscled body. The big man was kind enough to return the favor. He licked his lips and leered when Gambit sat down in the navigator's chair.

"Naked is a good look on you, Remy."

Gambit chuckled and peered out at him from under a curtain of hair.

"Too bad Gambit's hide ain't armored, mon ami. He'd walk around half naked all de time."

He unfolded his pants and stepped into one of the legs even as Riddick pouted. Grinning, he stepped into the other leg and stood up to pull them up and fasten them closed.

"Seems a shame to cover up all that gorgeous skin and muscle."

Chuckling, Gambit finished buckling his pants and patted Riddick on the shoulder in sympathy.

"We get t' somewhere dat ain't full of chil'ren an' sick folk an' you'll get a lap full of as much naked Gambit as y' can handle."

Then Gambit stuck his head out of the cockpit area and reached out with one hand.

"Hassan, homme. Pass Gambit his boots, s'il vous plait."

The child stopped wiping down his chest plate and reached out for the heavy black specially designed combat boots and lifted them up towards Gambit. He took them and nodded at the child with a soft smile.

"Merci, petite. Y' doin' a great job dere. I's appreciate it."

Hassan smiled shyly with pride in his eyes and went back to his self appointed task. Grinning, Gambit stepped back into the cockpit and flopped back down in the navigator's chair. He dropped the boots on the ground in front of him and took a moment to look out the front screen to take in the breathtaking view of stars and nebulas surrounding them.

"So…where de hell are we, anyways?"

Riddick reached out and pointed to a green display screen that Gambit recognized as a star chart with their route plotted through it even if he couldn't actually read it.

"We're about three hours out from the main shipping lanes. We don't have a whole hell of a lot in the way of supplies, and the life-support is straining to scrub our air as it is. The power conversion from the transport's power cells isn't perfect, so we're loosing nearly as much juice as we're using."

Gambit lifted a hand and facepalmed silently before he muttered a quiet but truly heartfelt "merde".

"Oh," Riddick's voice was darkly sarcastic and shouldn't have sent tingles up Gambit's spine, but did anyway. "It gets better. I estimate that if we aren't picked up in roughly a week or so…then shit's gonna get even worse."

"Lovely. Gambit just love gettin' such great news."

Riddick grunted and shrugged.

"You're the one that ended up leader of this little expedition through hell."

Gambit rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Still tryin' t' figure out how de hell that happened."

But he knew how it happened. He was a lifetime member of the X-Men and there wasn't an X-Man worth the name that ever gave up and quit when the going got hard. Oh, he was enough of a Marauder to be able to handle and dish out the violence and the death and the destruction. But in spite of his upbringing, and despite his own faults, somehow he'd managed to become an X-Man. And that meant something.

Sighing, he shoved his right foot into his boot and began the laborious process of tying it and strapping it up. It was a combat boot that was armored across the foot and shin with connecting kneepads.

They'd been designed specifically for him and his fighting style. They were a pain in the ass to get on, but entirely worth it in the end. Riddick eyed them with interest.

"What the hell you go stomping through in those shit kickers?"

Gambit smirked.

"Gambit stomps t'rough anyt'ing he wants t'. Dey waterproof, fireproof an' weigh nearly t'ree pounds each." He chuckled and shook his head. "Can kill a man wit' dese if Gambit kicks him just right."

Riddick barked out a dark laugh and nodded. "I bet."

That was when Hassan stumbled into the cockpit with Gambit's chest piece weighing him down.

"Armor's clean."

"Merci, petite." Gambit took it from him and the child grinned. "Need de shirt an' the head gear first, though."

Jack pushed through and handed them over with a smile. "I got them for you Gambit."

Gambit dropped his armored chest piece on the floor of the ship and it landed with a solid thunk. Riddick smirked and bit back a chuckle at the proof of its weight.

"How in the hell do you bounce around and flip through the air wearing all that shit plus an ankle length coat?"

Gambit just grinned and winked at him before turning back to the children.

"Merci, Jack. Gambit appreciate y' hard work an' help. Y' both good pups."

Jack grinned widely and bounced on his toes twice. Then he made a gesture back towards the other half of the ship.

"Oh, uh…Imam wants to know if you're hungry. We got stuff to eat, but it's that freeze dried stuff so it tastes yucky as shit."

Gambit snorted in amusement. He'd eaten enough MRE's to know what the kid meant.

"Oui, Gambit's starved. Give him a bit t' get dressed first, okay?"

"Sure Gambit."

Grinning, Jack turned and pulled Hassan out of the cockpit with giggles wafting in the air behind them. Riddick smirked at him in amusement.

"You got yourself a fan club, Remy."

Gambit winked at him. "All part of m' charm."

Then he sighed and shook his head. "Still, if'n dere ain't no one t' take in de boy, Jack…Gambit's gonna take him as his apprentice. Won' let un bebe stay on de streets if'n he can help it."

Gambit pulled the skin tight spandex looking shirt over his head. It was comfortable and absorbed bioenergy like his charge well, but it was so tight it left little to the imagination. Then he pulled the neck piece on. It wrapped around his shoulders to hold it in place, but its purpose was to cover his neck, the back of his skull, his cheeks and temples. It was a design that his brother Henri had come up with for him to prevent him from charging things accidentally back before he'd even tested for his Master's rank with the Guild.

Last came his gloves with the pointer and pinky fingers exposed. Theoretically, with this bioarmor on, the only way he could charge something was with those four exposed fingers and his face. However, he'd grown strong enough and learned enough control over the years to be able to charge something through his armor. He still had to concentrate to do that though.

"Why?"

Gambit picked up the last bit of his armor and sighed, his burning eyes looking into the far distant past.

"Jean-Luc LeBeau found a skinny street rat wanderin' de streets of de Big Easy, heh? De pup, he picks Jean-Luc's pocket an' gets caught. He thinks, dis be it. De big trouble he not gonna get out of."

A soft smile drifted over his lips and Gambit's attention snapped back to the present and he shrugged.

"Only, instead he takes dis po' boy in an' makes him his fils. Gives him a home an' trains him up int' a Master T'ief. Gambit gonna pay dat debt forward…train up Jack."

Riddick nodded, his own eyes distant and Gambit could only wonder what past haunted the big man, but he didn't ask.

Instead, he slid the heavy leather and kevlar armor over his head and began the laborious process of tightening all the straps to hold it tightly in place. All the while, Riddick eyed him up and down.

"You always go around dressed for battle?"

Gambit grinned and nodded. "Oui. Never know when de shit'll hit de fan."

Just then, Hassan and Jack were back. He grabbed his trench coat from Hassan and grinned at the boy.

"Merci."

He slid the coat on and patted all his pockets to check for his belongings. He briefly mourned the fact that no one made cigarettes in this crazy future and then took the MRE pack from Jack.

"Don' worry petite. Gambit will eat dis all up an' be all better, heh?"

Jack nodded and pointed a thin finger up at him.

"You better eat it all up or next time you keel over, I'm riffling through your pockets and taking all your stuff."

Gambit and Riddick both huffed out little laughs and Gambit winked. The kids scampered off into the back of the ship and Gambit turned to grin with amusement at the big man.

"Looks like I done been told."

"You have. Better listen to them, I think they're serious about stealing your shit."

Riddick eyed him up and down again and leered.

"You know…I still prefer you naked, but I gotta admit that you look fuckin' hot in that armor. All deadly and dangerous."

Gambit blinked twice and then tipped back his head and laughed loudly.


	6. Chapter 6

Life in the emergency space craft wasn't easy.

Space was limited and that made things tough even though everyone was trying hard to make it work. Gambit and Riddick had taken to sleeping in the pilot and navigator chairs up in the cockpit. Fry and Suleiman each had one of the bunks because of their injuries. The rest of them just tried to make do with sleeping on the cold hard floor. Zeke and Shazza usually curled up together and Hassan curled up next to Imam. More often than not, Jack ended up shyly crawling into Gambit's lap and falling asleep.

Gambit was torn between being glad the boy felt comfortable enough to fall asleep curled up on his lap and being sad that the child felt safest and had the strongest connection with a world class thief and a hunted serial killer. Especially when the other two choices were a Holy man with children of his own and a married couple that were kind and generous despite their gruff exterior.

Jack's obvious choice of Gambit and Riddick as protectors and pseudo parents said lots about his life before now and none of it was good.

Another problem that made things so difficult was the limited food and water. The cargo hold of the ship wasn't very big at all, but they'd had room left over when they escaped the planet. Storage space wasn't the reason for the limited food situation. No, that problem was actually a carryover from the planet itself.

The Hunter-Gratzner had only a tiny food supply as the passengers and crew were meant to spend the vast majority of the journey in stasis. There was literally no need to fill the holds with food. And what little it did carry had been lost when Fry dumped that first cargo hold and had either burned up in atmo or had been strewn the length and breadth of the continent. Either way, it was gone for good.

The settlement they'd found hadn't had much in the way of food either. What plants the settlers had managed to cultivate had long since died away and the freeze dried rations had been limited.

Shazza's team had been able to gather up quite a lot of water and all of the food, but that wasn't much to start with. Unfortunately, most of it needed to be added to water and cooked. They didn't have a way to do that, so they were eating cold goopy rehydrated freeze-dried food. That wasn't something that tempted anyone's appetite.

The ship had a small ration of energy bars and energy drinks, but they lacked any sort of taste whatsoever and didn't really fill a body up.

The worst part of this whole mess was the situation with Suleiman and Fry though. Unsatisfied bellies could be ignored. The tight quarters could be adapted to if people were willing to be polite and understanding. It was a whole other matter to watch two people writhe in pain and slip deeper and deeper into illness and not be able to do a single thing about it.

Suleiman and Fry were both suffering from their injuries. It was getting worse with each day as each of them developed a raging infection in their wounds. Fry's fever was dangerously high and her pulse was thready. They were going to lose her if they didn't get her to a medical facility fast.

Gambit wasn't really surprised by this turn of events even though he'd been too exhausted and mentally strung out to think of it before he'd collapsed back on the planet. Their first aid kit was just that, and it didn't have half the things they needed to treat such nasty injuries.

A vicious and pragmatic voice in the back of Gambit's head told him that he should have just taken John's advice and put Fry out of her misery back on the planet. They only had a limited amount of fever reducers and antibiotics with them and neither of those medications were very strong. While he wasn't a doctor, Gambit had spent enough time in both Sinister's and Beast's labs to know that if they had given all of the antibiotics to Suleiman than maybe the boy would be doing better. On the other hand, they didn't have anything to give Fry the help she needed.

The guilt of that thought and the weight of the responsibility sitting on his shoulders made him want to hit the gym and lift weights for hours or head down to the Danger Room and spar with Logan. That was impossible though. They didn't even have the space for him to work through a few opened handed katas without his staff, let along going all out with physical exertion like he wanted.

And just to make a bad situation even worse, the emergency ship was straining to do the job they needed it too. Even with keeping the life support at its lowest possible setting, things were dire. The ship had sat on that planet in the heat and dust of the desert for over two decades without any maintenance at all and the power cells it was running off of weren't the right size or kind.

They were still losing as much juice as they used and the air scrubbers were struggling to clean the air with so many people breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon-dioxide.

Riddick had pressed both Gambit and Zeke into working as his assistants as he pulled apart various systems and worked on them to fix small problems or repair damaged parts. The cargo hold had a few spare circuits, fuses, rings, and various small odds and ends as well as oil, grease, cleaner, and other fluids so that helped a little.

Still, as much as they did and as hard as they worked to fix things on the fly, it wasn't enough. And they all knew it. All they were doing was delaying the inevitable. They were draining the power cells too fast. Once they were gone, then it was only a matter of moments until everyone was dead.

Imam had wondered if perhaps it would be possible to reach the shipping lanes and then drift, using only a fraction of their remaining power to simply run the life support systems and wait for a ship to pick them up.

Riddick had agreed that was possible, except they had no idea how long they'd have to drift before a ship capable of picking them up arrived in the shipping lane. He didn't know this part of space that well and had no clue how frequently it was used. Fry might know, but they couldn't get her to focus on the issue enough to understand what they were asking. Between her fever and the morphine in her system, she was out of it.

All in all, morale was dangerously low and Gambit kept waiting for someone to panic and make things worse.

Imam must have agreed, because he'd taken to leading group prayers and telling stories from his Holy books that were meant to encourage and inspire hope. They seemed to help Hassan, Suleiman and Shazza, but he, Riddick, Jack, and oddly enough, Zeke were all too jaded to be comforted by the thought of some mysterious and almighty god looking out for them.

In the end, Gambit ended up having to distract and entertain the kids with stories of his life to keep them from getting underfoot with their restlessness and anxiety.

Hassan and Jack had curled up together on the floor of the cockpit between his and Riddick's chair and looked up at him with big eyes. He couldn't help but notice that there were new shadow's in Hassan's eyes and that the ones in Jack's had grown larger. These children had no delusions that they were safe and secure up here in the ship.

"Tell us about the Marauders, Gambit."

Gambit had looked down at them from the circuit he was soldering and smirked.

"Y' both a bit too young t' be hearin' Marauder stories, petit. De Marauders weren't a nice bunch."

Hassan and Jack glanced at each other and then shrugged.

"You're nice." Jack argued.

Gambit shrugged and held out a hand palm down and waggled it back and forth in what meant maybe or perhaps, sometimes.

"Eh, can be. Mais…Gambit be de nicest Marauder ever on de rolls. Most of 'em make Riddick seem nice."

The kids slid their eyes over to Riddick even as the big man snorted in amusement. He looked over at Gambit, a smirk on his lips and a gleam in his eyes.

"That so?"

Gambit opened his mouth to explain what he meant, paused to look down at the children watching him with interest and snapped his mouth shut. He simply nodded with a serious look on his face.

"Yeah. After all, more 'n just y' an' me on dis here ship an' de cargo hold ain't burstin' full of fresh red-blooded meat."

Riddick's eyes went cold and hard before shifting sharply to the children.

Gambit nodded.

"Exactly."

Jack and Hassan seemed confused about what he had hinted at and that was a good thing. He wasn't up to explaining Sabertooth's cannibalistic nature or the pragmatic approach most of the Marauders had. They would have killed off the others just to save wear and tear on the life support systems and to reserve more food and water rations for themselves.

"And you ran with that pack of lunatics?"

Gambit snorted and offered up a nasty grin.

"Gambit de one dat put de team t'gether. He built de Marauders from de ground up on de orders of his boss."

Riddick's cold eyes shifted back to Gambit.

"That so?" It was the same words as before, but this time the flirtiness was gone and the tone was cold and wary.

Gambit nodded slowly, his nerves winding tight from a combination of bad memories and Riddick's own guarded tension.

"Didn't stay too long, though. I has a conscience an' dere are lines dat I won't cross. De boss ordered a mission dat crossed dose lines an' I left."

"What do you mean?"

Gambit looked down into Jack's confused eyes.

"What did he want you guys to do?"

For a moment he struggled to find an answer to the boy's question. He didn't want to lie, but for all of Jack's street-wise ways, he wasn't ready to hear the truth.

"Eh…de Marauders as a team had all de skills needed t' be de perfect hunter-killer team an' wit' a bit of trainin' an' discipline could'a turned inta de best paramilitary team around…even takin' int' account de various mental health issues de members all had."

He shrugged and his eyes lost focus as he gazed into the past and the original Gambit's memories.

"Dere was dis government sponsored program dat was kidnappin' people an' experimentin' on dem called Weapon X. I had tangled wit' dem on a job for de Guild an' t'ree of de Marauders were former prisoners of dat program. Gambit thought dat de ultimate goal was t' attack Weapon X an' free de rest of de prisoners an' steal all dere records an' data."

"But it wasn't, was it?" It was Riddick's deep and rumbling voice that asked that and Gambit looked over at him, an old pain buried deep in his eyes.

"Non."

Gambit stared unfocused as he relived traveling through the Morlock tunnels under New York City and the horrific battle that followed.

"De boss sent us t' hit a soft target instead. It was a slaughter."

Gambit looked up and over at Riddick. He saw his own pain and shame echoed in the bigger man's eyes and knew that he understood.

"Some of de Marauders were professional about it. De other's though…they reveled in de carnage an' dat was de last straw for m'. I left right den an' dere."

"What's a soft target?"

Once again, Gambit was reminded of the children and looked down to see two curious faces looking up at him. He smiled softly and reached out a hand to tousle the boy's hair.

Leaning back in his chair, Gambit ignored the question and went on with the story…such as it was.

"So. Dere I was, in de middle of dis city far from de Guild an' wit' no direction now dat I wasn't wit' de Marauders an' wonderin' what de hell t' do wit' m'self. An' t' be honest, I was angry as all hell over de…massacre an' wanted t' try an' make things right. Only, dere was no one left t' make things right wit'."

"So…one night when Gambit was half drunk an' feelin' no pain he came up wit' dis plan. He was gonna target all de assholes dat was fundin' his ol' boss an' rob dem blind."

The children giggled at the naughtiness of stealing and the hint of danger, but Riddick's expression was shrewd and knowing.

"Did it help?"

Gambit glanced over at him and shrugged. They both knew that it hadn't eased his guilt at all or stopped the nightmares from haunting his sleep.

"Made an obscene amount of money, homme. Dat always helps."

The children giggled some more even as Riddick smirked, but the dark pain still hadn't left his eyes and Gambit knew that Riddick understood what he hadn't said.

Then Gambit's smile grew bigger and much more genuine.

"Den, when I was in de middle of a job I ran int' Stormy. Literally. She was workin' de same job tryin' t' make enough money t' escape de people chasin' her."

He grinned down at Jack.

"She wasn't dat much older den y', petit."

Jack frowned slightly as if wondering where she was, but then shrugged and grinned.

"Then what happened?"

Gambit chuckled and shook his head fondly.

"Took her as m' apprentice an' vowed t' teach her all I knew about de art of t'ievin'. Only, mon Stormy, she had her own ideas, heh?"

He rolled his eyes and grinned.

"Insisted I take her home t' her family up north. So, Gambit did just that only t' find out her family be one of de most notorious an' wanted freedom fighter groups in de world."

Riddick snorted in amusement.

"Only you, Remy. Only you could escape a group of feral mercs and end up with another bunch of fighters."

Gambit grinned in real amusement.

"It gets better. De X-Men an' de Marauders were sworn enemies by dis time."

"Oh no!" That was Jack, all excited and worried and completely caught up in the story. "What did you do?"

Gambit smirked.

"I stayed wit' de X-Men, of course."

He shook his head in fond remembrance.

"Dey were so naive about some t'ings. I reworked dere security something fierce. And dey were so idealistic and full of optimism. Dey wanted t' make de world a better place for everyone an' dey didn't like t' compromise dere morals."

He shrugged and rolled his eyes.

"While dat was a nice and comfortin' thing, especially after de incident wit' m' old team, I really did think dat dey would all end up dead one day 'cause dey trusted de wrong person. And since dey didn't believe in killin', dere enemies just kept comin' back again an' again."

Riddick tilted his head in thought.

"Sounds a bit like Imam."

Gambit nodded.

"Yeah."

"Although, wit' de X-Men I finally got t' fight against Weapon X, so dat was nice. Didn't mind goin' up against de Brotherhood despite de fact dat my wife's Guild worked wit' dem a lot an' I had friends dere. Was always torn fightin' de Marauders. Hated de boss an' didn't like some members, but other's were good friends."

"So…why do you still call yourself a Marauder and still wear their armor if you left them?"

Gambit grinned down at Jack and chucked him under the chin.

"Gambit joined t'ree groups in his life; de T'ieves Guild, de Marauders, and de X-Men. All t'ree of de groups is membership for life. And over de course of time, I did jobs for all t'ree groups, acted as leader of all t'ree groups, an' refused t' be part of various missions for all t'ree groups."

"Sounds like quite the balancing act."

Gambit looked over at Riddick and rolled his eyes in mild exasperation.

"Y' have no idea, homme." He chuckled. "It weren't so bad as time went on, but at first it were no picnic. Oddly enough, de two Guilds were de easiest despite me an' Bella gettin' a divorce an' not havin' no children. Once de t'ieves an' assassins got dere heads wrapped around de alliance, dey worked hard t' make it work an' Bella ran de United Guild wit' an' iron fist in a velvet glove."

He snorted.

"Non, de problems came mostly from de X-Men an' de Marauders. Both teams wanted m' an' weren't willin' t' share. Didn't trust Essex's goals an' de X-Men tended t' fall apart if'n t'ings got too bloody. It took both groups a long time t' accept dat Gambit walked his own path between de t'ree groups an' t' trust him t' not betray any of dem."

Riddick paused to look at him and Gambit could practically see the wheels turning behind his eyes. Something was confusing him and he couldn't work it all out.

"Explain something to me, Remy."

"Quoi?"

Riddick blinked and then pierced him with a serious look.

"Just how old are you? 'Cause you don't look that old, yet you'd have to have some serious years behind you for all of what you've been saying to happen."

Gambit paused and licked his lips. He didn't really want to get into the whole mess with him being a clone of a real man that had lived centuries ago. He didn't even like thinking about it, partly because of superstitions regarding the state of his soul…if he even had one anymore, and partly because it made him feel less…real.

Yet Riddick had a point. His memories stopped at the age of 72. By that time, he was the sole acknowledged Guildmaster of the North American Untied Guild as the New Orleans chapter had managed to absorb all the other independent chapters by then. He was also one of the oldest surviving X-Men with only Logan, Rictor, Bobby, and Sam being alive from the old days. And of those five; Logan, Bobby and Sam were effectively immortal due to their mutations.

By that point, he was actively funding the X-Men and running an international corporation as well as the Guild. Sinister had gone mostly underground with his studies and was being funded by a group over in China, so Gambit had taken on the Marauders as well. He sent them in as troupes in situations where an assassin wouldn't be enough and the X-Men just wouldn't do.

For roughly a decade there, he had been the most wealthy and powerful man on the planet. Governments and international corporations as powerful as governments had feared and respected him. It was so easy to see how he could have turned out like the Witness in Bishop's dystopian version of the future, but Gambit had worked hard not to become the Witness and Rictor had helped greatly with that. Still, he had been…harder and more jaded than the street-wise thief he'd once been.

At that time, Sam and Bobby were running the X-Men together and Logan…well, he spent a lot of time up in the Canadian mountains in an effort to ignore the fact that he wasn't aging and the vast majority of his friends, teammates, and even enemies were dead or were close to dying of old age.

All those memories rolled around his head and he could very nearly see and hear them again. Yet they didn't mesh with the strong body and young face he now wore. He could easily understand Riddick's confusion. He shared it. And he couldn't begin to count how many times he'd looked in the mirror and been shocked to see a young man's face instead of the weathered and worn visage of an old man.

"Dat's a long an' complicated story."

An alarm began to blare shrilly and several lights on the cockpit's console began to flash.

"A story dat will have t' wait till another time."


End file.
